render_async

Renders partials to your views asynchronously. This is done through adding Javascript code that does AJAX request to your controller which then renders your partial.

Workflow:

1. user visits a page =>
2. AJAX request on the controller action =>
3. controller renders a partial =>
4. partials renders in the place where you put render_async helper

Javascript is injected into <%= content_for :render_async %> so you choose where to put it.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'render_async'

And then execute:

$ bundle install

Usage

1. Include render_async view helper somewhere in your views:

   # app/views/comments/show.html.erb
   
   <%= render_async comment_stats_path %>

2. Then create a route that will config/routes.rb

   # config/routes.rb
   
   get :comment_stats, controller: :comments

3. Fill in the logic in your controller

   # app/controllers/comments_controller.rb
   
   def comment_stats
     @stats = Comment.get_stats
   
     render partial: "comment_stats"
   end

4. Create a partial that will render

   # app/views/comments/_comment_stats.html.erb
   
   <div class="col-md-6">
     <%= @stats %>
   </div>

5. Add content_for in your base view file

   # application.html.erb
   
   <%= content_for :render_async %>

6. Add styles in your application.css

   /* application.css */
   
   /*
   *= require render_async
   */

7. (optional) Pass event_name: <event name> to hook events

   # application.html.erb
   
   <%= content_for :render_async, event_name: 'foo' %>

   // application.js
   
   document.addEventListener('success-foo', function () {
     console.log('success')
   });
   
   document.addEventListener('error-foo', function () {
     console.log('fail')
   });
   
   // Call `complete-<event_name>` whether success or error
   document.addEventListener('complete-foo', function () {
     console.log('complete')
   });

Advanced usage

render_async takes two arguments, path and html_options.

• path is the ajax-capable controller action you're looking to call via get. e.g. comments_stats_path, posts_path, etc.
• html_options is an optional hash that gets passed to a rails javascript_tag, to drop html tags into the script element.

Example utilizing html_options with a nonce:

<%= render_async users_path, nonce: 'lWaaV6eYicpt+oyOfcShYINsz0b70iR+Q1mohZqNaag=' %>

Development

After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. Then, run rake spec to run the tests. You can also run bin/console for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.

To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install. To release a new version, update the version number in version.rb, and then run bundle exec rake release, which will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and tags, and push the .gem file to rubygems.org.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/renderedtext/render_async.

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.