From: Adam Van Den Hoven <mail@...>
Date: 2005-09-27T07:56:43+09:00
Subject: Re: Embedded Ruby and Tag Libs

James,

I agree, except that it starts to fall apart as you get more complex.

Lets take an example from rails that REALLY annoys me: form_tag. It  
follows largely the same form you suggest.

Right now to make a form in rails you do the following:

<%= form_tag :controller=>"foo" :action=>"bar" %>
    Name:
     <%= text_field "person", "name", "size" => 20 %>
     Password:
     <%= password_field "person", "password", "maxsize" => 20 %>
     Single?:
     <%= check_box "person", "single" %>
     Description:
     <%= text_area "person", "description", "cols" => 20 %>
     <input type="submit" value="Save">
<%= end_form_tag %>

There's no easy way to encapsulate this into a single method,  
although Devin (as I'm writting this) has some good suggestions.




On 26-Sep-05, at 2:49 PM, James Edward Gray II wrote:

> On Sep 26, 2005, at 4:25 PM, Adam Van Den Hoven wrote:
>
>
>> I tend to build a site once then provide a style guide and show  
>> them how to update their content. There is no way I'm going to be  
>> able to document for my client the mechanic how to create a table  
>> on some arbitrary page using the code you have below.
>>
>
> I bet you could use ERb and some helper methods to great affect for  
> something like this.
>
>
>> Its a lot simpler, IMHO, if I just told them to write the following:
>>
>> <x:photo imghref="someurl">
>>     <x:title>Fishermen at the <a href="/steveston.rsp">Steveston  
>> docs</a>, circa 1843</x:title>
>>     <x:caption><p>Yadda yadda yadda.</p><p>Blah blah blah</p></ 
>> x:caption>
>>     <x:cite photographer="James Tyson" publication="Steveston  
>> Chronicle" year="1983" />
>> </x:photo>
>>
>> I can then write my markup from that.
>>
>
> An example of what I'm thinking:
>
> <%= photo :imgref       => "someurl",
>           :title        => "Fishermen at the...",
>           :caption      => "<p>Yadda yadda yadda...",
>           :photographer => "James Tyson",
>           :publication  => "Steveston Chronicle",
>           :year         => 1983 %>
>
> That's trivial to implement as a simple Ruby method call where you  
> will have the full language at your command to build up whatever  
> return value you need.
>
> Just a thought.
>
> James Edward Gray II
>
>
>