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PORails way to offer modified attributes
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copied!<p>The case is simple: I have markdown in my database, and want it parsed on output(*).</p> <p><code>@post.body</code> is mapped to the posts.body column in the database. Simple, default Activerecord ORM. That column stores the markdown text a user inserts.</p> <p>Now, I see four ways to offer the markdown rendered version to my views: </p> <p><strong>First</strong>, in <code>app/models/post.rb</code>:</p> <pre><code># ... def body markdown = RDiscount.new(body) markdown.to_html end </code></pre> <p>Allowing me to simply call @post.body and get an already rendered version. I do see lots of potential problems with that, e.g. on edit the textfield being pre-filled with the rendered HMTL instead of the markdown code.</p> <p><strong>Second</strong> option would be a new attribute in the form of a method</p> <p>In <code>app/models/post.rb</code>:</p> <pre><code># ... def body_mardownified markdown = RDiscount.new(body) markdown.to_html end </code></pre> <p>Seems cleanest to me.</p> <p>Or, <strong>third</strong> in a helper in <code>app/helpers/application_helper.rb</code></p> <pre><code>def markdownify(string) markdown = RDiscount.new(string) markdown.to_html end </code></pre> <p>Which is used in the view, instead of <code><%= body %></code>, <code><%= mardownify(body) %></code>.</p> <p>The <strong>fourth</strong> way, would be to parse this in the <code>PostsController</code>. </p> <pre><code>def index @posts = Post.find(:all) @posts.each do |p| p.body = RDiscount.new(string).to_html @rendered_posts << p end end </code></pre> <p>I am not too familiar with Rails 3 proper method and attribute architecture. How should I go with this? Is there a fifth option? Should I be aware of gotchas, pitfalls or performance issues with one or another of these options?</p> <p>(*) In future, potentially updated with a database caching layer, or even special columns for rendered versions. But that is beyond the point, merely pointing out, so to avoid discussion on filter-on-output versus filter-on-input :).</p>

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