Flowdock
method

layout

Importance_5
v1.1.6 - Show latest stable - 8 notes - Class: ActionController::Layout::ClassMethods
layout(template_name, conditions = {}) public

If a layout is specified, all rendered actions will have their result rendered when the layoutyield’s. This layout can itself depend on instance variables assigned during action performance and have access to them as any normal template would.

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August 7, 2008
12 thanks

Function to Determine Layout

Sometimes its nice to have different layouts choosen automagicly:

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
 layout :determine_layout
 def determine_layout
   if is_admin?
     "admin"
   else
     "application"
   end
...
end
June 30, 2008
12 thanks

Turn layout off

If you don’t want a layout rendered, just put:

layout nil

in your controller.

July 15, 2008
9 thanks

Required Reading

The details for using layout (such as possible values for the conditions hash) can be found in ActionController::Layout::ClassMethods.

September 17, 2008
4 thanks

Turn layout off with render

Thats awkward, but the code below does not turn layout off:

render :action => "short_goal", :layout => nil

you must use false

render :action => "short_goal", :layout => false
February 27, 2010
4 thanks

Caveat when using dynamic layouts

Worth noting that if you have a controller which inherits from another controller which has a layout, and in this child controller you’re determining the layout at runtime using a method for specific actions, the other actions you are excluding will not inherit the layout from the parent controller.

For example, if you’ve got this

class BaseController < ApplicationController
  layout "public"
end
class OrdersController < BaseController
  layout :determine_layout, :only => :new
  # index, show, new, create, edit, update, destroy ...
end

then OrdersController#index, #show, and #edit won’t get the “public” layout – in fact they won’t get a layout at all. So you’ll need to do this instead:

class OrdersController < BaseController
  layout :determine_layout, :only => :new
  layout "public", :except => :new
  # ...
end
March 4, 2010
3 thanks

Re: Caveat when using dynamic layouts

Since there’s no way to edit posts on here, I need to correct myself and say that what I posted before doesn’t work, since you can’t specify layout multiple times:

class OrdersController < BaseController
  layout :determine_layout, :only => :new
  layout "public", :except => :new
  # ...
end

So don’t do that. The only way to ensure that the other actions get the default theme is to drop :only/:except and do the conditions yourself:

class OrdersController < BaseController
  layout :determine_layout

private
  def determine_layout
    %w(new).include?(action_name) ? "some_layout" : "public"
  end
end

All this to say, beware of :only/:except – they aren’t as useful as you think they are.

July 4, 2008
3 thanks

Using a specific layout

To choose the layout (or no layout) for a method call the render method with a :layout option.

March 28, 2012
1 thank

Disable layout on ajax

In actions that may or may not be loaded via ajax I use:

render :layout => !request.xhr?

For an entire controller I might use something like:

layout :has_layout?

private
  def has_layout?
    request.xhr? ? false : controller_name
  end

What seems unusual is that

layout true

will try look for the layout true.erb