Question

(Rails version 2.3.2)

By default the :layout parameter for render takes a relative path and adds this to the default layout directory (“app/views/layout”).

Eg:

render :file => '../resources/website/home_page.html.erb', :layout => '../../../../resources/website/layout'

“If no directory is specified for the template name, the template will by default be looked for in app/views/layouts/. Otherwise, it will be looked up relative to the template root.”

–http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionController/Layout/ClassMethods.html

However, the above only works in development mode, and breaks in production, failing to find the template. Exception: ActionView::MissingTemplate

Either way, I would rather specify the direct path to a layout file.

(The idea is to keep the specified layout file separate from the main project views, in a plugin-like way.)

Is this possible?

I could temporarily (instance only) override the method “default_layout” in ActionController::Layout? (But im not sure how?)

Thanks for reading.

Answer 1

If you need to resolve layout per request, try:

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  layout :resolve_layout

  # some definitions

protected

  def resolve_layout
    # some logic depending on current request
    path_to_layout = RAILS_ROOT + "/path/to/layout"
    return path_to_layout
  end

end

I hope, that is what you need.