Question

So, I’d like to be able to display both a flash[:notice] and a flash[:error] on the same action, but I’d like for the :notice to always be displayed above (or before) the error. Is there a way to do this?

In my controller, I thought I could just code the flash[:error] before the flash[:notice], so that rails will display it correctly, and it does a vast majority of the time. But every now and then they are randomly switched, and I can’t seem to figure out why. So, how can I ensure that a flash[:notice] is always displayed above an :error ?

Edit: Thanks to Ben’s and Ryan’s advice, I’ve now just set up conditionals in my layout/application file.

    <% if flash[:notice] %>
        <div id="flash_notice"><%= flash[:notice] %></div>
    <% end %>

    <% if flash[:error] %>
        <div id="flash_error"><%= flash[:error] %></div>
    <% end %>

I’m pretty satisfied with this, but maybe there’s an even better way?

Edit #2: Yes, there is. Ben added it to his answer below. Thanks again Mr. Ben.

Answer 1

The order of display simply depends on your view code. If you do this in your controller:

flash[:notice] = "Notice me"
flash[:error] = "BAAAAADDDD"

And this in your view:

<p><%= flash[:notice] %></p>
<p><%= flash[:error] %></p>

the :notice will always appear first.

Try this for a more elegant approach. The order you define in the array is the order they’ll appear in:

<% [:error, :notice].each do |condition| %>
  <%= "<p class='#{condition.to_s}'>#{flash[condition]}</p>" if flash.has_key?(condition) %>
<% end %>