http://smellsblue.blogspot.com/2009/11/easy-partials-in-rails.html

Would love to hear what you think!

I’ve got a container, analagous to rounded corners implemented as a partial-with-block. Then I’ve got another partial-with-block that implements the idea of a title that can be clicked to use js to show/hide content under it (with suitable user clues, and suitable non-js degrading).

This seems an appropriate use for a partial with a block in both cases. And it doesn’t seem odd to sometimes want a title-with-expandable-content inside a container eg rounded-corners, does it?

Yet, I’m having trouble making it work with Rails. Using either this hack OR the Rails 2 partial-layout trick. I’m using Rails 2.1.x, I think this stuff changed yet further in Rails 2.3.x, so figuring out how to do it in a way that will be forwards-compatible when I get my app migrated to 2.3 is even more of a pain.

I also really like the look of the :layout option when rendering partials as that seems even simpler, plus it’s built in to the framework. Somehow that one seems to have passed me by. Thanks for passing it on Kornelis!

When you put content in a table, you are implying that it is tabular data, like a spreadsheet - and when that isn’t true, you are actively misrepresenting the content. You are saying it is one thing, when really it’s another.

Whereas, when you use a div, you are simply failing to use a more semantically sound element - saying it is nothing when really it is something - which is a lesser crime, even if it remains a crime.

Sound harsh? I’m sure it is. But too many people have been using markup incorrectly since the beginning. In the 1990s that was people using tables to position text. Now it’s people nesting 9,001 levels of divs to do the same thing (in this example it’s just 4, but the number which are actually needed is 1!) *Both* approaches are wrong, people need to wake up from the dream that merely replacing table with div is some kind of magic bullet.

Any advice?