Question

I have the following haml code:

%input{:value => "", :type => "button",:class => "SendBtn", :onclick => "$.get('#{send_path}',{parameter:$('#parameter').val()}); "}

This input executes an event in the controller.

// This is my controller
def send

    if request.xhr?
        // do stuff
    end
end

But my js code in the corresponding .js.erb file is not being executed. It is returned as the response of the get request.

// send.js.erb
alert('hello');

How is the rails way to have this code executed?

Answer 1

Your problem is not Rails related, it’s jQuery. With the get method you are just fetching more or less plain text. This will not get executed. You could do an eval on the text but there is a better way. Use the getScript method from jQuery. This will fetch and execute your code.

As a side note, there are two things that are bothering me in your code:

1. You are using inline JavaScript. try to remove this by using a data- attribute for your send path, like this data: { sendPath: send_path }, and retrieving it with $(yourInput).data('sendPath') in your application.js file.
2. From my personal view I do not like to put executing JavaScript code in ERB templates. I find that this fragments the front end logic of my app. For me it worked better to put the logic in .js files and communicate with the server over JSON.