Question

I am trying to pass along a local variable to a partial using link_to. I have tried many different things, but it doesn’t seem to work. The js file loads the partial fine, it just doesn’t have the locals. This is what I have, thanks for any direction!

_health.html.erb (this is a partial on index.html of Contacts model)

<% @comments = Comment.find_all_by_api(@api) %>
<%= link_to 'Read Comments', comments_path(:comments => @comments), :action => 'comments',  :remote => true %> 

comments.js.erb

$("#comments").html("<%= escape_javascript(render(:partial => 'comment', :locals => {:comments => :comments})) %>");

comment.html.erb

<% unless @comments.blank? %>
 <% @comments.each do |c| %>

   <%= c %><br />

 <% end %>
<% end %>

contacts_controller.rb

  def comments  
   respond_to do | format |  
      format.js {render :layout => false}  
   end
 end

Answer 1

The partial does not know about the comments because you never set them. The comments action in the controller needs to look like this:

def comments
   @comments = Comment.find(params[:id])
   respond_to do | format |

(replace params[:id] with the appropriate parameter from your route)

You’re doing an AJAX request and since http is stateless, the comments action does not know anything about any previous requests – which means that the comments from _health.html.erb have ceased to exist for the comments action in the controller.