Question

In my controller, i have a method defined as:

def self.store_pdf(id)
...
end

in that method, I need to call render_to_string to render the correct file / layout:

render_to_string(
    :action => "../view/current_version/show.pdf.erb", 
    :layout => false)

but because render_to_string is both an instance method and protected, I need to do the following:

me = self.new # self is the cortroller
me.send(:render_to_string,
    :action => "../view/current_version/show.pdf.erb", 
    :layout => false)

but then there are dependencies such as the response object that render_to_string needs to work, as shown here: http://apidock.com/rails/ActionController/Base/render_to_string

So, I began adding them

me.send(:response=,  ActionController::Response.new)

But, more and more of the global instance variables need to be defined, and I decided it was too much work just to try to get one static method to work.

The method needs to be static, so that delayed_job can run the method in the background at a later time.

Anyone have an idea as to how to pull this off?

Answer 1

You can read erb via ERB if you are not using any rails helper,If you are using any rails helper then include Rails helper.
you can refer using here or

require 'erb'
class PdfRender
 #include ActionView::Helpers::OutputSafetyHelper
 #include helper if any is present any
 def self.render_pdf(id)
  #set any instance variable if you are using in pdf 
  content = File.read('path/of/erb/template')
  template = ERB.new(content) 
  # template content will give you text now you can render or generate pdf
  template_content = template.result(binding)


 end
end 

Note:
replace h() with CGI.escapeHTML()