I found myself in a situation where I was creating basically the same method in many of my controllers, the only difference being the name of the model object. For example:
class ArticlesController
# .... cut
def set_recommended(is_recommended)
@article.recommended = is_recommended
@article.save
respond_to do |format|
format.js { render :nothing => true }
end
end
class MoviesController
# .... cut
def set_recommended(is_recommended)
@movie.recommended = is_recommended
@movie.save
respond_to do |format|
format.js { render :nothing => true }
end
end
end
So, I want to refactor this code, and create one method for this in the application.rb file – but how to refer to the @movie and @article objects?
Simply by using the instance_variable_get method! You simply pass in a string with the name of the method, and it returns the instance variable.
Here’s how the new method looked within the application.rb file.
class ApplicationController
# .... cut
def set_recommended(is_recommended)
object = instance_variable_get("@#{self.controller_class_name.chomp("Controller").singularize.underscore}")
object.recommended = is_recommended
object.save
respond_to do |format|
format.js { render :nothing => true }
end
end
end
Of course, this only works for controllers and model names that follow the singular, plural convention (i.e. model name is article and controller name is ArticlesController)
