Where to put partials shared by the whole application in Rails?

Question

Where would I go about placing partial files shared by more than one model? I have a page called crop.html.erb that is used for one model - Photo. Now I would like to use it for another model called User as well.

I could copy and paste the code but that's not very DRY, so I figured I would move it into a partial.

Since it's shared between two models - where would I place that partial?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The Rails convention is to put shared partials in /app/views/shared.

Answer 2

Update

Layout inheritance is now in the guides under layout and rendering Template inheritance works similarly.

Rails 3.1 and following versions implement template inheritance, so I think the correct place for shared partials is now /app/views/application/, say you are in products#index you can do the following:

-# products#index
= render @products.presence || 'empty'

-# /app/views/application/_empty.html.haml
There are no items

btw it's application because the connection is the controller inheritance, so this assumes ProductsController < ApplicationController

This way if you implement /app/views/products/_empty.html.haml that will be taken, the above is a fallback for all the missing partials, and I can't check right now, but I think even for the template itself...

Railscast: template inheritance!

Answer 3

TL;DR

Rails 3.1, Rails 4, Rails 5 and whatever comes next

app/views/application

The engine searches this path automatically if the view is not found in the controller path.

Rails 3 and prior

app/views/shared

The engine does NOT search this path automatically.

---

Long story

Rails 3 (and prior version) have no default location for storing shared views.

The unofficial convention is to store shared views in app/views/shared. Wherever you'd end up storing them though, you have to specify the path

# render app/views/shared/menu.html.erb
<%= render :partial => "shared/menu" %> 

This suggestion was popularized by Agile Web Development with Rails.

Rails 3.1 introduces an official standard for where to store shared views:
app/views/application

Thanks to this standard, the engine now automatically looks for templates in app/views/application. As a result, you don't have to use the full path anymore.

Those curious can follow here the thought process behind this decision.

Old syntax

# render app/views/application/menu.html.erb
# unless menu.html.erb is found in appp/views/my_controller
<%= render :partial => "menu" %> 

New syntax

# render app/views/application/menu.html.erb
# unless menu.html.erb is found in appp/views/my_controller
<%= render partial: "menu" %> 

Of course, you can still place your shared views wherever you want and reference them by path

<%= render :partial => "my_own_special_shared_folder/menu" %>

Unless you have a very good reason to do this though, please stick to the new standard and store your shared views in app/views/application.

Answer 4

The Rails View uses app/views/layouts for shared partials like header and footer, but the Ruby on Rails Guide uses app/views/shared in an example. I guess it comes down to personal preference. I would use layouts for high-level stuff like a main nav or a footer, but shared for more narrow controller-level stuff like a form.

Answer 5

I general have a shared folder in my views that contains commonly used partials.

Answer 6

It doesn't matter where you put them. You can render any partial at any arbitrary location by providing the file's path to render - it doesn't need to be associated with the controller that's rendering it. I use a directory simply called partials under the view directory, and call partials in it like this:

render :partial => 'partials/mypartial'