Add an 'active' class to all active links in rails?

Question

Basically, I have a lot of code that looks like this:

link_to t('.profile'), business_path(@business), class: '#{'active' if current_page? business_path(@business)}'

which isn't very DRY.

I was wondering if anyone knows a good way to modify the link_to helper itself to automatically add an 'active' class to all links to the current page.

If it helps, I'm open to using HAML or SLIM.

Answer 1

This is a good case for writing your own helper that wraps the link_to. In your application_helper.rb you can write a method active_link_to that takes the same params as link_to + current_page, and then just calls link_to like you are doing above.

Answer 2

I wrote simple helper method using build in view helper current_page? when you can specify custom class name in html_options hash.

def active_link_to(name = nil, options = nil, html_options = nil, &block)
  active_class = html_options[:active] || "active"
  html_options.delete(:active)
  html_options[:class] = "#{html_options[:class]} #{active_class}" if current_page?(options)
  link_to(name, options, html_options, &block)
end

Examples (when you are on root_path route):

<%= active_link_to "Main", root_path %>
# <a href="/" class="active">Main</a>

<%= active_link_to "Main", root_path, class: "bordered" %>
# <a href="/" class="bordered active">Main</a>

<%= active_link_to "Main", root_path, class: "bordered", active: "disabled" %>
# <a href="/" class="bordered disabled">Main</a>

Answer 3

It's a solved problem, just use active_link_to gem. Your example simplifies to this:

= active_link_to t('.profile'), business_path(@business)

Answer 4

I faced same requirement and here is my solution.

Create a method within ApplicationHelper

def active_class(link_path)
    current_page?(link_path) ? "active" : ""
end

And inside your view:

    <li class="<%= active_class('/') %>">
      <%= link_to 'HOME', root_path %>
    </li>

Answer 5

Here's the helper I use. I add an optional "match_text" parameter for added flexibility (for instance, if I want to mark a link as active when the actual request path is a child page of the link's destination.)

def link_to_active(text, destination, options = {})
  match_text = options.delete(:match_text)

  classes = options[:class].present? ? options[:class].split(" ") : []
  classes << "active" if request.fullpath.downcase == destination.downcase || (match_text && request.fullpath.downcase.include?(match_text.downcase))

  options = options.except(:class)
  options.merge!(:class => classes.join(" ")) unless classes.empty?

  link_to(text, destination, options)
end

Answer 6

Use link_to_unless_current and then give it the look of an active link in CSS.