Which directory should contain shared partials in a Rails app?
Rejected option: app/views/layouts directory
I’ve seen this:
app/views/layouts/application.html.erb
app/views/layouts/_flashes.html.erb
app/views/layouts/_footer.html.erb
app/views/layouts/_header.html.erb
app/views/layouts/_javascript.html.erb
app/views/layouts/_navigation.html.erb
However, the layout directory should contain… layouts.
app/views/layouts/application.html.erb
Rejected option: app/views/shared directory
I’ve seen this:
app/views/shared/_flashes.html.erb
app/views/shared/_footer.html.erb
app/views/shared/_header.html.erb
app/views/shared/_javascript.html.erb
app/views/shared/_navigation.html.erb
That was the recommendation in the classic, Agile Web Development with Rails.
Also, when you extracted a partial from a layout in
rails.vim using :Rextract, it would
automatically place the extracted partial into the shared directory.
Current solution: app/views/application directory
This is our current standard:
app/views/application/_flashes.html.erb
app/views/application/_footer.html.erb
app/views/application/_header.html.erb
app/views/application/_javascript.html.erb
app/views/application/_navigation.html.erb
The main reason is a subtle, but functional difference: template inheritance.
Also, invoking the partials is slightly shorter with this approach. Instead of:
render 'shared/navigation'
This is possible from every view:
render 'navigation'
We have formalized this convention in Suspenders
Sharing is caring.
