Layouts and Partials

Layouts allow you to wrap your code in a standard header and footer.

The default layout is called app/views/layouts.application.html.erb

Any changes we make to this file will be visible in all out views, unless we specify another layout.

Layouts Exercise

Your default layout file lives in app/views/application.html.erb. Any changes you make to this file will be visible in every page on your site, unless you explicitly use a different layout.

Add a header and footer to your application.html.erb file. It should be visible on each of your pages.

Passing a title

Try to pass through a @title variable from the controller to the view. Use this as the page title at the top of your layout file.

Partials

Partials are partial views. They allow you to break your code up into smaller sensible chunks.

Partials exercise

Partial filenames start with an underscore.

Create a header partial called /app/views/layouts/_header.html.erb

Include it in your template using the render method, like so:

  <%= render partial: "layouts/header" %>

You may wish to create partials for things like:

• Headers and footers
• Metadata
• JavaScript includes
• Facebook widgets
• Tables
• Forms

Create a footer partial now.