Question

I am trying to create a photo upload function for a website, and there are two ways to upload. One is by specifying a remote url link, another is by uploading from local computer. So this requires me to write two partials. What’s an efficient way to create a photo_upload view with two links to the two situations above, using the same controller for photo? I am stuck on how to pass the redirection information to the controller. Ideally I want to set a photocontroller variable called upload_source when I click on one of the links, but I don’t know how to use link_to to pass such variable and where would be the best place to define this boolean variable.

Some code examples:

from the view:

  <h2>Upload a Photo: Step 1 of 3</h2>
    <br>
    <h3><strong>Where is your photo?</strong></h3>
    <br>
    <div class="button_border">
      <a href="add_photo_web">On the Web</a>
    </div>
    <div class="button_border">
      <%= link_to "On My Computer", new_photo_path%>
    </div>
  </div>

From photoController (not sure if this is the right thing to do):

  helper_method :get_source, :set_source

  private

  def set_source=(_source)
    @@source = _source
  end  

  def get_source
    @@source
  end 

Helps are greatly appreciated!

Thank you all for very generous help! I am constantly amazed by the efficiency of stackoverflow.

Answer 1

If I understand you correctly, you could achieve what you want by having links defined like this:

link_to "On my computer", new_photo_path, :source => "local"
link_to "Remote source", new_photo_path, :source => "remote" 

and then in the controller you could have something like:

def new
 if params[:source] == "local"
   render :partial => 'local'
 else
   render :partial => 'remote'
 end
end