Ruby on Rails - render layout

Question

I'm trying to split up a web site into two sections. One which should use the application layout and one that should use the admin layout. In my application.rb I created a function as follows:

def admin_layout if current_user.is_able_to('siteadmin') render :layout => 'admin' else render :layout => 'application' end end

And in the controllers where it might be one or the other I put

before_filter :admin_layout

This works fine for some pages (where its just text) but for others I get the classic error:

You have a nil object when you didn't expect it! You might have expected an instance of Array. The error occurred while evaluating nil.each

Does anyone have an idea of what I'm missing? How should I properly use render and layout?

molf · Accepted Answer · 2009-07-15 07:36:48Z

43

The method render will actually attempt to render content; you should not call it when all you want to do is set the layout.

Rails has a pattern for all of this baked in. Simply pass a symbol to layout and the method with that name will be called in order to determine the current layout:

class MyController < ApplicationController layout :admin_layout private def admin_layout # Check if logged in, because current_user could be nil. if logged_in? and current_user.is_able_to('siteadmin') "admin" else "application" end end end

See details here.

edited Jul 15, 2009 at 7:36

answered Jul 14, 2009 at 21:22

molf

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4 Comments

Reuben Mallaby Over a year ago

if logged_in? and current_user.is_able_to('siteadmin') as current_user may be nil if not logged in!

RyanJM Over a year ago

I have other checks before that line to check for if a user is logged in. That is amazing though, I never even thought about calling a function after layout. So simple and very helpful. Thank you.

RyanJM Over a year ago

For those who are checking this out. I should have done a little more research: apidock.com/rails/ActionController/Layout/ClassMethods/layout the first comment would have answered my question.

Kick Buttowski Over a year ago

@molf the link in your answer is broken

score 5 · Accepted Answer · 2010-05-05 14:19:22Z

perhaps you need to check that the user is signed in first?

def admin_layout if current_user and current_user.is_able_to 'siteadmin' render :layout => 'admin' else render :layout => 'application' end end

Kick Buttowski · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-10 19:08:01Z

1

It might be because current_user is nil when the user is not logged in. Either test for .nil? or initialize the object.

edited Mar 10, 2017 at 19:08

Kick Buttowski

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answered Jul 14, 2009 at 21:25

marcgg

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Comments

Reuben Mallaby · Accepted Answer · 2009-07-15 05:41:27Z

0

Try molf's answer with:

if logged_in? and current_user.is_able_to('siteadmin')

answered Jul 15, 2009 at 5:41

Reuben Mallaby

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Comments

Dee-M · Accepted Answer · 2009-07-15 15:12:52Z

Your current user is properbly set in the after the user has logged in. and in this case you should have an option to determine if you are logged in

like

 if !@current_user.nil? if @current_user.is_able_to("###") render :layout => "admin" else render :layout => "application" end end

Then it will only enter the if statement if your @current_user in not nil.

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