Question

I have a simple menu that looks like this:

<ul class="menu">
     <li class="active"><a href="<%= root_path %>">Home</a></li>
     <li class=""><%= link_to 'Feeds' , feeds_path %></li>
     <li class=""><%= link_to 'Accounts' , accounts_path %></li>
</ul>

Class “active” is the style to mark my current page.

I have two questions:
1. How do I “tell” the app what page I am on and ask it to “change” the class to active?
2. Is there a better way to create this menu (maybe driven by the controller or a db table)?

I realize this is a newbie question, but I have been thinking about this for a few days now, have read some tutorials, but none of them really click.

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

I use the method current_page? to set my active link. It takes a path as its parameter. I create a hash of link texts and paths and iterate over it printing the links. That way I only have to call current_page? one time.

There are gems that can help you, though. Look through these: https://www.ruby-toolbox.com/categories/rails_menu_builders