Cells - Components for Rails

So, you're looking for a way to render actions inside actions?
You're sick of a non-functional #render_component ?
You've lost track of your helpers and partials, and how they fit together with controllers and views?

Well, Cells is the building block for building blocks in Rails.

Cells look like controllers. They are super fast. They provide clean encapsulation. They are reuseable across your project. They can be plugged anywhere in your views or controllers.

Call them "mini controllers" . But hey, they are faster!

Call them "partials on steroids" . But wait, they are object-oriented instances, not a loose helper+partial thing.

Show me!

Shopping cart illustration fat

You need something like a shopping cart, which appears on almost every page of your app.

You wouldn't use a partial and a helper, would you?

Generate

$ script/generate cell ShoppingCart display
  create  app/cells/
  create  app/cells/shopping_cart
  create  app/cells/shopping_cart_cell.rb
  create  app/cells/shopping_cart/display.html.erb

The generator provides you with all the files you need.

Implement

File: app/cells/shopping_cart_cell.rb

class ShoppingCartCell < Cell::Base 
  def display 
    @orders     = @opts[:orders]
    
    render
  end
end

Implement the cell state.

Layout

File: app/cells/shopping_cart/display.html.erb

<div id="cart">
  You have <%= @orders.size %> in your shopping cart. 
</div>

Setup a view for the cell state, as you know it from controller actions.

Plug in!

File: app/controllers/products_controller.rb

def show
  @cart = render_cell :shopping_cart, :display, :orders => @orders

  render
end

Render the cell in your controller actions, or even in views.

Of course, there is more. Cells can contain cells. Cells can do caching. Cells can be interactive. See more in the example app .