DRY Up Your Views With Layouts For Your Partials

I got comments on my previous post, DRY up your views with nested partials, letting me know that there is a better way. So here is the same thing, done the proper way:

First, I've got this cool set of divs that gives me a nice looking window I will be reusing:

 
  <div id="window-top"></div>
  <div id="window">
    <%= render :partial => 'mypartial' %>
  </div>
  <div id="window-bottom"></div>
  
  <div id="window-top"></div>
  <div id="window">
    <%= render :partial => 'myotherpartial' %>
  </div>
  <div id="window-bottom"></div>

The goal here is to be able to re-use the code for the window multiple times. First, lets create a partial called '_lorem.html.erb':

<p>"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do 
eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim 
veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo
 consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse 
 cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat 
 non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est 
 laborum." </p>

And another called '_blah.html.erb':

<p>blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah 
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah 
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah 
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah 
blah blah blah </p>

Alright! Now, make one last partial, which will be used for the layout, called '_window.html.erb'. Note that it needs to be created in the same directory as the other partials. This is where you put the code for the cool window you just made.

<div id="window-container">
  <div id="window-top-left"></div><div id="window-top">Window Title</div>
<div id="window-top-right"></div>
  <div id="window">
    <%= yield %>
  </div>
  <div id="window-bottom-left"></div><div id="window-bottom">
</div><div id="window-bottom-right"></div>
</div>

And now, when you want to render a partial that is inside your window, all you need to do is set the layout to window:

<h1>Test of nested partials</h1>

<%= render :partial => 'blah', :layout => 'window' %>

<%= render :partial => 'lorem', :layout => 'window' %>

And thats it! Enjoy DRYing up your views. Later

-Ralph

EDIT: if you use :layout => 'layouts/window', you can put '_window.html.erb' in /views/application and reuse it throughout the site.