Question

There is a method has_edit_right? defined in customers_helper.rb file. The method needs to be accessed by both the controller and its view. The rspec returns NoMethodError:

  1) CustomersController GET customer page 'edit' should be successful if current user is the owner of the customer
     Failure/Error: post 'edit', :id => customer.id, :customer => {:name => "name changed"}
     NoMethodError:
       undefined method `has_edit_right?' for #<CustomersController:0x3df6980>
     # ./app/controllers/customers_controller.rb:40:in `edit'
     # ./spec/controllers/customers_controller_spec.rb:87:in `block (3 levels) in <top (required)>'

Any thoughts about the problem? Thanks.

Answer 1

Helpers are for views, that’s their point. They aren’t supposed to be available in the controller, they’re specifically for distilling out reusable view logic. If you need a method available to both the controller and its views, define a protected method in the controller and provide it to the view via helper_method.

In this example, the method has_edit_right? defined in the controller will also be available to the views.

# app/controllers/posts_controller.rb

class PostsController < ApplicationController

  helper_method :has_edit_right?

  # ...

  def edit
    raise "Access Denied" unless has_edit_right?
    # ...
  end

  protected

  def has_edit_right?
    current_user.admin?
  end
end

---

# app/views/posts/show.html.erb

<% if has_edit_right? %>
  <%= link_to "Edit Post", edit_post_path(@post) %>
<% end %>