Helpful Helpers

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Here is a list of helper methods that we use a lot at Plexus to make our jobs easier. A few have been referenced in previous posts, but I thought I'd list them all here in one place.

Strip text for pretty URLs

You can use this method to replace all non-alphanumeric characters to dashes in a title or name when you're including them in the URL.

This is the route I use for my posts on this blog:

            m.post_details ':year/:month/:day/:title', :action => "by_date",
              :requirements => { :year => /(19|20)\d\d/, :month => /[01]?\d/, :day => /[0-3]?\d/},
              :day => nil, :month => nil, :title => nil
            

And here is the helper to strip out characters in the title when creating the URL:

            # Replace all non-alphanumeric characters with dashes
            def strip_chars(string='')
              string.gsub(/\s+/,'-').gsub(/[^a-z0-9\-]+/i, '')
            end
            

You can call the helper when you generate the route.

            post_details_path(:year => @post.date.year, :month => @post.date.month, :day => @post.date.day, :title => strip_chars(@post.title))
            

Generate a random password of n length

I've actually got a whole other post for just this helper, but decided to include it in this list.

            def generate_password(length=6)
              chars = 'abcdefghjkmnpqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ23456789'
              password = ''
              length.times { |i| password << chars[rand(chars.length)] }
              password
            end
            

It will generate a 6 digit password by default, but you can specify the desired length.

            generate_password
            => "Q6Kfze"
            
            generate_password(10)
            => "ZSJcmtRH5q"
            

Built-in rails helpers

These following helpers are built into rails, but you may not know about them.

Array#to_sentence

            ["this", "that", "the other"].to_sentence
            => "this, that, and the other"
            

number helpers

            number_to_currency(123456789)
            => "$123,456,789.00"
            
            number_to_human_size(123456789)
            => "117.7 MB"
            
            number_to_phone(1234567890, :area_code => true)
            => "(123) 456-7890"
            

There are a ton of string inflector helpers

            "under_scored".dasherize
            => "under-scored"
            
            "names_and_titles".humanize
            => "Names and titles"
            
            "lower case title".titleize
            => "Lower Case Title"
            

Tagged: helpers, rails, ruby