How to stay DRY when using both Javascript and ERB templates (Rails)
- by user94154
I'm building a Rails app that uses Pusher to use web sockets to push updates to directly to the client. In javascript:
channel.bind('tweet-create', function(tweet){ //when a tweet is created, execute the following code:
$('#timeline').append("<div class='tweet'><div class='tweeter'>"+tweet.username+"</div>"+tweet.status+"</div>");
});
This is nasty mixing of code and presentation. So the natural solution would be to use a javascript template. Perhaps eco or mustache:
//store this somewhere convenient, perhaps in the view folder:
tweet_view = "<div class='tweet'><div class='tweeter'>{{tweet.username}}</div>{{tweet.status}}</div>"
channel.bind('tweet-create', function(tweet){ //when a tweet is created, execute the following code:
$('#timeline').append(Mustache.to_html(tweet_view, tweet)); //much cleaner
});
This is good and all, except, I'm repeating myself. The mustache template is 99% identical to the ERB templates I already have written to render HTML from the server. The intended output/purpose of the mustache and ERB templates are 100% the same: to turn a tweet object into tweet html.
What is the best way to eliminate this repetition?
UPDATE: Even though I answered my own question, I really want to see other ideas/solutions from other people--hence the bounty!
