Rails: Should partials be aware of instance variables?

Question

Ryan Bates\' nifty_scaffolding, for example, does this

edit.html.erb

<%= render :partial => \'form\' %>

new.html.erb

Answer 1

You can have it both ways. At the top of your partial:

<% item ||= @item %>

That way, it works with or without passing the local variable, providing a sane default, but not inhibiting alternate usage of the partial.