Named Routes in Javascript

This "creatively" named plugin installs a controller and view which creates handy javascript methods for generating named routes in javascript. For example, if you had the following RESTful route defined in routes.rb:

map.resources :posts

You'd get these (and other) familiar-looking javascript URL helpers:

posts_url()         => "http://localhost:3000/posts"
post_url({id: 3})   => "http://localhost:3000/posts/3"
post_path({id: 3})  => "/posts/3"

post_path({
  id: 3, 
  format: 'xml'
}) => "/posts/3.xml"

post_path({
  id: 3,
  extra: 'string'
}) => '/posts/3?extra=string'

The hostname is also made available:

js_named_routes_server_host => "http://localhost:3000"

If you prefer to have routes added to their own namespace instead of the global javascript namespace, specify the namespace of your choosing as follows in an initializer:

JsNamedRoutes::Config.scope = "Routing"

Use the scoped style helpers like this:

Routing.posts_url()         => "http://localhost:3000/posts"
Routing.host                => "http://localhost:3000"

The javascript generated by this plugin does not depend on any third-party javascript library.

INSTALL

$ cd RAILS_ROOT
$ script/plugin install git://github.com/gohanlonllc/js_named_routes.git

This plugin requires Rails 2.3.2 or newer because it's (now) implemented as an engine-style plugin.

USAGE

This plugin automatically injects a route for the included JS named routes controller.

Install, and then visit the following URL to confirm the plugin is working properly:

http://localhost:3000/javascripts/named_routes.js

Include the js_named_routes javascript URL in your HTML head tag (probably application.html.erb or other layout file):

<%= javascript_include_tag named_routes_path %>

This plugin uses page caching to cache the generated javascript routes, but lacks any intelligence for sweeping the cached file if you've made changes to your routes. That shouldn't be a problem if you are using Capistrano for production deployments because the cache is normally stored in RAILS_ROOT/public which isn't kept across deployments. Caching is normally disabled in development mode, but if you turn on caching you will need to manually clear the cached file:

$ cd RAILS_ROOT
$ rm public/javascripts/named_routes.js

CREDITS

Originally authored by Joshua Siereles with some code and the idea coming from Using Rails Routes from Client-Side JavaScript by Galen O'Hanlon.

Enhancements and Rails 2.3.2 compatibility added by Gohanlon LLC.

Original non-configurable scoping implementation utilizing Routing object wrapper and Rails 2.0 compatibility added and cleaned up by Ripta Pasay.