Arc Forum | Here's a first draft in Rails that doesn't use any template files. class HomeCo...

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5 points by lojic 6500 days ago | link | parent

Here's a first draft in Rails that doesn't use any template files.

 class HomeController < ApplicationController
 def first
 if request.get?
 aform 'first', [input('foo'), submit]
 else
 session[:foo] = params[:foo]
 wlink 'third', 'click here'
 end
 end
 def third
 pr "you said: #{session[:foo]}"
 end
 end

6 points by lojic 6500 days ago | link

A small example is fine, but wouldn't it be better if it at least did some basic validation? How does the Arc example change if you enforce only alphanumeric characters in the input field?

 class HomeController < ApplicationController
 def first
 if request.get?
 aform 'first', [input('foo'), submit]
 else
 if params[:foo] && params[:foo] =~ /[A-Za-z0-9]/ 
 session[:foo] = params[:foo]
 wlink 'third', 'click here'
 else
 aform 'first', ["Please enter an alphanumeric string", input('foo'), submit]
 end
 end
 end
 def third
 pr "you said: #{session[:foo]}"
 end
 end

Of course, we'll then want to allow the designers to modify the presentation, and allow the copy writers to add compelling text, etc. So, it seems like a template system is the way to go, but maybe someone has a better idea.

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3 points by lojic 6500 days ago | link

I can see pros/cons of a template based approach vs. generating everything. I do find the separation of templates from code to be very beneficial since I haven't been able to get to the point of controlling 100% of the presentation via CSS alone - sometimes a simple structural change in a template file is less intrusive than modifying code.

Also, I wonder about the overhead of continuation based approaches with higher volumes.

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4 points by akkartik 6499 days ago | link

> I haven't been able to get to the point of controlling 100% of the presentation via CSS alone..

I think that's the real reason PG uses tables.

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2 points by lojic 6498 days ago | link

BTW, this is working code. I just had to add the following functions to app/controllers/application.rb:

aform, input, pr, submit, wlink

all one liners except for aform which is 3

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