Module ActionView::Helpers::TextHelper
In: lib/action_view/helpers/text_helper.rb

The TextHelper module provides a set of methods for filtering, formatting and transforming strings, which can reduce the amount of inline Ruby code in your views. These helper methods extend ActionView making them callable within your template files.

Methods

Constants

AUTO_LINK_RE = %r{ ( # leading text <\w+.*?>| # leading HTML tag, or [^=!:'"/]| # leading punctuation, or ^ # beginning of line ) ( (?:https?://)| # protocol spec, or (?:www\.) # www.* ) ( [-\w]+ # subdomain or domain (?:\.[-\w]+)* # remaining subdomains or domain (?::\d+)? # port (?:/(?:(?:[~\w\+@%=\(\)-]|(?:[,.;:'][^\s$]))+)?)* # path (?:\?[\w\+@%&=.;-]+)? # query string (?:\#[\w\-]*)? # trailing anchor ) ([[:punct:]]|<|$|) # trailing text }x unless const_defined?(:AUTO_LINK_RE)

Public Instance methods

Turns all URLs and e-mail addresses into clickable links. The link parameter will limit what should be linked. You can add HTML attributes to the links using href_options. Options for link are :all (default), :email_addresses, and :urls. If a block is given, each URL and e-mail address is yielded and the result is used as the link text.

Examples

  auto_link("Go to http://www.rubyonrails.org and say hello to david@loudthinking.com")
  # => "Go to <a href=\"http://www.rubyonrails.org\">http://www.rubyonrails.org</a> and
  #     say hello to <a href=\"mailto:david@loudthinking.com\">david@loudthinking.com</a>"

  auto_link("Visit http://www.loudthinking.com/ or e-mail david@loudthinking.com", :urls)
  # => "Visit <a href=\"http://www.loudthinking.com/\">http://www.loudthinking.com/</a>
  #     or e-mail david@loudthinking.com"

  auto_link("Visit http://www.loudthinking.com/ or e-mail david@loudthinking.com", :email_addresses)
  # => "Visit http://www.loudthinking.com/ or e-mail <a href=\"mailto:david@loudthinking.com\">david@loudthinking.com</a>"

  post_body = "Welcome to my new blog at http://www.myblog.com/.  Please e-mail me at me@email.com."
  auto_link(post_body, :all, :target => '_blank') do |text|
    truncate(text, 15)
  end
  # => "Welcome to my new blog at <a href=\"http://www.myblog.com/\" target=\"_blank\">http://www.m...</a>.
        Please e-mail me at <a href=\"mailto:me@email.com\">me@email.com</a>."

The preferred method of outputting text in your views is to use the <%= "text" %> eRuby syntax. The regular puts and print methods do not operate as expected in an eRuby code block. If you absolutely must output text within a non-output code block (i.e., <% %>), you can use the concat method.

Examples

  <%
      concat "hello", binding
      # is the equivalent of <%= "hello" %>

      if (logged_in == true):
        concat "Logged in!", binding
      else
        concat link_to('login', :action => login), binding
      end
      # will either display "Logged in!" or a login link
  %>

Creates a Cycle object whose to_s method cycles through elements of an array every time it is called. This can be used for example, to alternate classes for table rows. You can use named cycles to allow nesting in loops. Passing a Hash as the last parameter with a :name key will create a named cycle. You can manually reset a cycle by calling reset_cycle and passing the name of the cycle.

Examples

  # Alternate CSS classes for even and odd numbers...
  @items = [1,2,3,4]
  <table>
  <% @items.each do |item| %>
    <tr class="<%= cycle("even", "odd") -%>">
      <td>item</td>
    </tr>
  <% end %>
  </table>

  # Cycle CSS classes for rows, and text colors for values within each row
  @items = x = [{:first => 'Robert', :middle => 'Daniel', :last => 'James'},
               {:first => 'Emily', :middle => 'Shannon', :maiden => 'Pike', :last => 'Hicks'},
              {:first => 'June', :middle => 'Dae', :last => 'Jones'}]
  <% @items.each do |item| %>
    <tr class="<%= cycle("even", "odd", :name => "row_class") -%>">
      <td>
        <% item.values.each do |value| %>
          <%# Create a named cycle "colors" %>
          <span style="color:<%= cycle("red", "green", "blue", :name => "colors") -%>">
            <%= value %>
          </span>
        <% end %>
        <% reset_cycle("colors") %>
      </td>
   </tr>
 <% end %>

Extracts an excerpt from text that matches the first instance of phrase. The radius expands the excerpt on each side of the first occurrence of phrase by the number of characters defined in radius (which defaults to 100). If the excerpt radius overflows the beginning or end of the text, then the excerpt_string will be prepended/appended accordingly. The resulting string will be stripped in any case. If the phrase isn‘t found, nil is returned.

Examples

  excerpt('This is an example', 'an', 5)
  # => "...s is an exam..."

  excerpt('This is an example', 'is', 5)
  # => "This is a..."

  excerpt('This is an example', 'is')
  # => "This is an example"

  excerpt('This next thing is an example', 'ex', 2)
  # => "...next..."

  excerpt('This is also an example', 'an', 8, '<chop> ')
  # => "<chop> is also an example"

Highlights one or more phrases everywhere in text by inserting it into a highlighter string. The highlighter can be specialized by passing highlighter as a single-quoted string with \1 where the phrase is to be inserted (defaults to ’<strong class="highlight">\1</strong>’)

Examples

  highlight('You searched for: rails', 'rails')
  # => You searched for: <strong class="highlight">rails</strong>

  highlight('You searched for: ruby, rails, dhh', 'actionpack')
  # => You searched for: ruby, rails, dhh

  highlight('You searched for: rails', ['for', 'rails'], '<em>\1</em>')
  # => You searched <em>for</em>: <em>rails</em>

  highlight('You searched for: rails', 'rails', "<a href='search?q=\1'>\1</a>")
  # => You searched for: <a href='search?q=rails>rails</a>

Returns the text with all the Markdown codes turned into HTML tags. This method is only available if BlueCloth is available.

Examples

  markdown("We are using __Markdown__ now!")
  # => "<p>We are using <strong>Markdown</strong> now!</p>"

  markdown("We like to _write_ `code`, not just _read_ it!")
  # => "<p>We like to <em>write</em> <code>code</code>, not just <em>read</em> it!</p>"

  markdown("The [Markdown website](http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/) has more information.")
  # => "<p>The <a href="http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/">Markdown website</a>
  #     has more information.</p>"

  markdown('![The ROR logo](http://rubyonrails.com/images/rails.png "Ruby on Rails")')
  # => '<p><img src="http://rubyonrails.com/images/rails.png" alt="The ROR logo" title="Ruby on Rails" /></p>'

Attempts to pluralize the singular word unless count is 1. If plural is supplied, it will use that when count is > 1, otherwise it will use the Inflector to determine the plural form

Examples

  pluralize(1, 'person')
  # => 1 person

  pluralize(2, 'person')
  # => 2 people

  pluralize(3, 'person', 'users')
  # => 3 users

  pluralize(0, 'person')
  # => 0 people

Resets a cycle so that it starts from the first element the next time it is called. Pass in name to reset a named cycle.

Example

  # Alternate CSS classes for even and odd numbers...
  @items = [[1,2,3,4], [5,6,3], [3,4,5,6,7,4]]
  <table>
  <% @items.each do |item| %>
    <tr class="<%= cycle("even", "odd") -%>">
        <% item.each do |value| %>
          <span style="color:<%= cycle("#333", "#666", "#999", :name => "colors") -%>">
            <%= value %>
          </span>
        <% end %>

        <% reset_cycle("colors") %>
    </tr>
  <% end %>
  </table>

Returns text transformed into HTML using simple formatting rules. Two or more consecutive newlines(\n\n) are considered as a paragraph and wrapped in <p> tags. One newline (\n) is considered as a linebreak and a <br /> tag is appended. This method does not remove the newlines from the text.

You can pass any HTML attributes into html_options. These will be added to all created paragraphs.

Examples

  my_text = "Here is some basic text...\n...with a line break."

  simple_format(my_text)
  # => "<p>Here is some basic text...\n<br />...with a line break.</p>"

  more_text = "We want to put a paragraph...\n\n...right there."

  simple_format(more_text)
  # => "<p>We want to put a paragraph...</p>\n\n<p>...right there.</p>"

  simple_format("Look ma! A class!", :class => 'description')
  # => "<p class='description'>Look ma! A class!</p>"

Returns the text with all the Textile codes turned into HTML tags.

You can learn more about Textile‘s syntax at its website. This method is only available if RedCloth is available.

Examples

  textilize("*This is Textile!*  Rejoice!")
  # => "<p><strong>This is Textile!</strong>  Rejoice!</p>"

  textilize("I _love_ ROR(Ruby on Rails)!")
  # => "<p>I <em>love</em> <acronym title="Ruby on Rails">ROR</acronym>!</p>"

  textilize("h2. Textile makes markup -easy- simple!")
  # => "<h2>Textile makes markup <del>easy</del> simple!</h2>"

  textilize("Visit the Rails website "here":http://www.rubyonrails.org/.)
  # => "<p>Visit the Rails website <a href="http://www.rubyonrails.org/">here</a>.</p>"

Returns the text with all the Textile codes turned into HTML tags, but without the bounding <p> tag that RedCloth adds.

You can learn more about Textile‘s syntax at its website. This method is only available if RedCloth is available.

Examples

  textilize_without_paragraph("*This is Textile!*  Rejoice!")
  # => "<strong>This is Textile!</strong>  Rejoice!"

  textilize_without_paragraph("I _love_ ROR(Ruby on Rails)!")
  # => "I <em>love</em> <acronym title="Ruby on Rails">ROR</acronym>!"

  textilize_without_paragraph("h2. Textile makes markup -easy- simple!")
  # => "<h2>Textile makes markup <del>easy</del> simple!</h2>"

  textilize_without_paragraph("Visit the Rails website "here":http://www.rubyonrails.org/.)
  # => "Visit the Rails website <a href="http://www.rubyonrails.org/">here</a>."

If text is longer than length, text will be truncated to the length of length (defaults to 30) and the last characters will be replaced with the truncate_string (defaults to "…").

Examples

  truncate("Once upon a time in a world far far away", 14)
  # => Once upon a...

  truncate("Once upon a time in a world far far away")
  # => Once upon a time in a world f...

  truncate("And they found that many people were sleeping better.", 25, "(clipped)")
  # => And they found that many (clipped)

  truncate("And they found that many people were sleeping better.", 15, "... (continued)")
  # => And they found... (continued)

Wraps the text into lines no longer than line_width width. This method breaks on the first whitespace character that does not exceed line_width (which is 80 by default).

Examples

  word_wrap('Once upon a time', 4)
  # => Once\nupon\na\ntime

  word_wrap('Once upon a time', 8)
  # => Once upon\na time

  word_wrap('Once upon a time')
  # => Once upon a time

  word_wrap('Once upon a time', 1)
  # => Once\nupon\na\ntime

[Validate]