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Rails & AJAX, is there a reason you shouldn't render html view directly in controller action for ajax to process?

The classic way to work with Rails & Ajax is always something that looks like this:
// JS - let's assume this submits to dummies#create
$(form).submit()
# Dummies Controller
def create
#dummy = Dummy.new(dummy_params)
respond_to do |format|
format.js
end
end
# /views/dummies/create.js.erb
$("page").append("<%= escape_javascript(render partial: 'dummy_view' ) %>");
# /views/dummies/_dummy_view.html
<h1><%= #dummy.name %></h1>
I've always been curious, because the above seems to create a random create.js.erb file with very little meat... is there a reason (e.g., it's terrible convention, or terribly insecure or whatever), why you should NOT instead just render the view directly back to ajax?
// JS - basically takes responsibilites of create.js and puts it into the always
$.ajax(...).always(function(xhr, status){
$("page").append($(xhr['responseText']))
// responseText contains the partial rendered by the controller action
})
# Dummies Controller
def create
#dummy = Dummy.new(dummy_params)
render partial: 'dummy_view'
end
# /views/dummies/_dummy_view.html
# unchanged
<h1><%= #dummy.name %></h1>
NOTE above is pseudo-code, apologies for minor errors. The conceptual idea & question remain unchanged, though.

The create.js.erb is not random, is the view for the action with the expected format.
Generally, you may not have a view so simple (You may have different selectors other than "page", you may have some extra js code to be executed after or before the append), a js view/script is the general solution for an ajax request to give the response full control over what to do.
You could have what you want, but it will just work for your particular case when the selector is always "page" and you only want to append html to that element. Nothing prevents you from doing that (though you might want to use a custom ajax request and not rails' one since it sets js format by default and executes the response's script).
The convention is that a rails' remote request renders a js script, you can move out of the convention if you want. You'll lose a lot of flexibility with your approach as is (like... what if the create action fails an you need to display errors?).

Rails 4/AJAX GET data from controller

I posted a very poor question about this earlier, so I am reposting and making it MVCE.
I'm building a messaging service with Rails and AJAX. So far I can submit a message through a form, it will update in the HTML DOM, an AJAX POST method will send it to the controller, and the controller will save it in the database.
Now I need to add an AJAX method that will GET the message that was just submitted -- so that other users (in other browsers) will be able to view it.
Currently, and this is a hack job way of doing it, in my JS code I set a timeout that calls an AJAX GET function every half second. Is there a better way to do this -- as in, once the controller saves the message can it call the AJAX function? The AJAX code looks like this:
function retrieveMessages(){
var message;
<%debugger%>
$.ajax({
type:"GET",
url:"<%= messages_get_path %>",
dataType:"json",
data: { what_goes_here: "blah" }, //this is the part I do not understand -- see below
success:function(data){
message = data;
console.log(data)
}
});
setTimeout(retrieveMessages, 500);
}
$(document).ready(function(){
//get messages
setTimeout(retrieveMessages, 500);
... more irrelevant
The line data: { what_goes_here: "blah" } doesn't make sense to me. What is the syntax for the controller to send data back to be stored into data:? Furthermore, from the console I can see that what_goes_here is being passed as a parameter to the controller -- again this doesn't make sense to me.
My route looks like this get 'messages/get', :to => 'messages#get' (this might be incorrect?)
rake routes shows
messages_get GET /messages/get(.:format) messages#get
And as of now, I don't have anything in my controller other than a respond_to because at this point I'm just trying to call the controller. What is the syntax to send data back to the AJAX method?
def get
debugger
respond_to do |format|
format.html
format.json {render json: #variable} //is this #variable being passed to the AJAX call?
end
end
UPDATE
This makes more sense to me... the AJAX method simply calls the def get function. The def get function then finds the message in the database, and stores it in an instance variable. Subsequently, I can add some Javascript code that will insert it into the DOM. However I must have something wrong in my routing because I'm getting (in the console) http://localhost:3000/messages/get 404 (Not Found)

What you are doing, as you suspect, is not effective. The more users are online the more will be load from these refreshing requests, most of them probably returning no new data.
You should consider more active way of notifying your browsers about changes on the server. One option is to use ActionCable.

How to retrieve a value from an AJAX call with Rails?

I have this scheme:
JS:
jQuery.validator.addMethod(
"check_membership",
function() {
console.log('A');
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "/subscriptions/check_validity",
dataType:"JSON",
data: {coupon: "12345"},
});
console.log('<%= #aaa %>');
},
"mmmmm"
);
and Rails action:
def check_validity
#aaa = 'xxx'
respond_to do |format|
format.js { render :text => #aaa }
end
end
My goal is to display in Javascript the value from Rails - #aaa, but the output of
console.log('<%= #aaa %>');
is just an empty space...
But I am not sure what the proper workflow should be here (I need to pass just a kind of information like "yes"/"no").
Thanks guys!

Ajax sends a params variable of your data to the controller, just like a form for a new record. In your example, to retrieve the coupon value, you pass params the key you established in your ajax call:
def check_validity
value = params[:coupon] # returns "12345"
...
end
As noted in another answer, this will not yield the #aaa value in your console.log, or anywhere in your javascript. These variables are interpreted on the server side, but javascript only works on the client side (unless you're using server side javascript, but that's a horse of a different color). This can be confusing because we use Ruby variables in Views, but Views are interpreted on the server, before they are sent to the client. Javascript is not.
Once you pass a variable to Rails, through the params value, you'll need to send any new information back to the client, which is looks like you're trying to do with :text => #aaa. Many ways to tackle this issue, but you could start with the Railscast:
http://railscasts.com/episodes/324-passing-data-to-javascript
and also
http://railscasts.com/episodes/136-jquery-ajax-revised

Hm, a lot of confusion going on here:
console.log('<%= #aaa %>');
Is mixing server side and client side stuff. If you
render :text => #aaa
in rails, you don't get a variable named #aaa in your browser.
I'd recommend rendering json to the browser anyway...

Rails - Multiple remote forms hitting same controller action?

I'm working on an application in which a certain model is updated from a number of different locations using remote forms. I'm looking for a pattern to dynamically call the right JS callback after updating this model.
With a normal form this can be solved by passing a redirect url in the form itself and then redirecting to this url in the controller. The remote form side is harder: Should I pass a file name? Should I pass an arbitrary string and then switch on that string in a single .js.erb file? Any other suggestions?
Is this just a sign that the application should be restructured to prevent updating the same model from more than one location?

No it's fine If you can call the same controller action from different locations.
Your options:
1) Preferably this controller action can give the same response and will work for the different locations, ex. it just updates a container with a id which is present in all those locations.
2) You noted that redirects made things easy in the past, consider adding the following to your application controller:
def js_redirect_to(path, flash_messages = {})
flash_messages.each { |type, message| flash[type] = message }
respond_to do |format|
format.js { render :js => "window.top.location='#{path}';" }
end
end
This is the same signature as the normal redirect_to, it just allows you to redirect from a js request. Note that if you use turbolinks the js should be 'Turbolinks.visit(url);'.
3) If you really can't handle it generically like the options above, you could pass your JS namespace of the location you are submitting from in the form, and the controller calls the same method for all locations, it's just a different namespace. Ex:
Let say one location is from Pet administration, then in assets pet.js:
var pet = {
load = function() {
your page load js...
},
... more functions...
post_callback = function(html_segment1, html_segment2) {
this is where you handle the form callback for pets...
$('some_element').html(html_segment1);
$('another_element').html(html_segment2);
}
}
Construct more like these for other locations of your app. Using JS namespaces like this is anyway a good idea. Then your form submits a parameter :location => :pet to the controller, which responds with:
... your JS code that all pages should execute...
html_segment1 = "<%= escape_javascript(render 'some_partial') %>";
html_segment2 = "<%= escape_javascript(render 'other_partial') %>";
<%= #location %>.post_callback(html_segment1, html_segment2);
4) Use a widget gem, most popular is apotomo or cells.
5) Just use a case in the controller to render different views.
Hope this helps, let me know if you need clarification.

Rails: How do load/trigger a js.erb using the controller?

I'm not even sure how to ask this question in a way thats understandable.
Basically, I'd like to do some javascript using a js.erb after I save. I'm submitting the form using a regular javascript/coffee-script file (if all fields are filled in correctly, then the form is submitted, else the form does nothing & just displays errors).
Part of my coffee-script:
fieldCorrectResponse: (fields, response) ->
if fields == correct
$('#new_mail')[0].submit()
else
$('#mail_error').text('error while filling out form')
my mail controller:
def create
#mail = Mail.new(mail_params)
if #mail.save
#PERFORM SOME JS USING A JS.ERB
else
render :new
end
END
So I guess what I'm really is asking is, how would you call a js.erb in the controller?
Wrote the solution to my problem below..

You should be able to render js and use create.js.erb.
Please try:
# MailsController
def create
#mail = Mail.new(mail_params)
if #mail.save
respond_to do |format|
format.js
end
else
render :new
end
END
Then, implement your javascript in app/views/mails/create.js.erb.

"do some javascript" isn't terribly descriptive. are you wanting to return a JSON object from the create action, which can then be parsed by the success callback on your jquery? Or do you want to have a template that has javascript in it that gets called as a result of the save action?
vinod covered the second way. make sure you have your routes set up correctly.
if you want to return a parseable JSON object, then write
render json: { some: 'json objects', should: 'go here' }
Also, not knowing what "mails" are, if you're trying to send emails that should be done with action mailer, and probably done as a part of committing the main model to the database (if you're creating a user and also trying to send an email, have a method as part of user creation that sends out the email).