Question

I want to do paging of lists of data with ruby on rails. Basically, I want to show only 20 records at a time, with next and back buttons. It would be nice, but not required, to show links for the page numbers.

Something like this would be nice:

<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 … Next >>

Is there a built in way to do this in ruby on rails (or something I can add) so I don’t have to write this myself?

Answer 1

There is a plugin will_paginate that can be used to do pagination seamlessly in RoR. Find following links. They might be of some help.

http://nasir.wordpress.com/2007/10/31/pagination-in-ruby-on-rails-using-will_paginate-plugin/

https://github.com/mislav/will_paginate/wiki/

https://github.com/mislav/will_paginate/wiki/simple-search

http://blog.railsspace.com/past/2008/1/31/railsspace_will_paginate/

Also I am sure that following railscast by Ryan Bates is going to be an excellent source of understanding. All rails casts are really good and give you deep understanding of basics.
http://railscasts.com/episodes/51-will-paginate