on_the_spot

On-the-spot is a Rails3+ compliant unobtrusive javascript in-place-editing plugin, using jEditable, and depends on jQuery.

• built on proven jQuery plugin jEditable
• works on index-pages, nested objects, ...
• can generate simple edit-boxes, textareas, dropdown lists, checkboxes
• will check your server-side validations and show the error
• you can check the access-rights before doing any update (to check against tampering)
• you can use custom display methods, e.g when using markdown
• there is a sample project to demonstrate usage (old)

Inside your Gemfile add the following:

gem "on_the_spot"

Run the installation task:

rails g on_the_spot:install

This will copy the default translation files, and for rails 3.0 it will also copy the needed assets (javascript files).

Add the componanion package

yarn add @nathanvda/on_the_spot 

and then in your app/javascripts/packs/application.js you should add

require("jquery")
require("jquery-jeditable")
require("@nathanvda/on_the_spot")

Add the following to application.js so it compiles to the asset_pipeline

//= require on_the_spot

Or, inside your application.html.haml you could still include the needed javascripts, using

= javascript_include_tag :on_the_spot

To use the default styling, add the following to application.css so it compiles to the asset_pipeline

*= require on_the_spot

Or, inside your application.html.haml you could still include the needed css, using

= stylesheet_link_tag :on_the_spot

Breaking changes: since rails 5 render :text is deprecated and removed, this means that starting from 1.1.0 this gem is no longer compatible with rails 3, but is compatible with rails 4 and 5. So if you are still using rails 3.x you need the fixate the version to 1.0.6

 gem 'on_the_spot', '1.0.6'

Inside your application.html.haml you will need to add below the default javascripts:

= javascript_include_tag :on_the_spot

or using erb, you write

<%= javascript_include_tag :on_the_spot %>

To use the default styling, inside your application.html.haml you will need to add below the default CSS:

= stylesheet_link_tag :on_the_spot

or using erb, you write

<%= stylesheet_link_tag :on_the_spot %>

Inside your routes.rb you need to provide the following route :

resources :posts do
  collection do
    put :update_attribute_on_the_spot
    get :get_attribute_on_the_spot
  end
end

You need to do this for each controller that uses the on-the-spot editing.

You only need to specify the route for get_attribute_on_the_spot if you make use of the :display_method option, and do not want to supply your own load-function.

That is all you need to do to start using it!

Inside your controller you write:

class YourController < ApplicationController

  can_edit_on_the_spot

  ... leave the rest of your controller alone ...

end

And inside your view you will have to specify the fields you want to be "editable" :

Username: <%= on_the_spot_edit @user, :name %>

It should be as simple as that :)

The can_edit_on_the_spot accepts options:

• :is_allowed: method-name to call to check if the update is allowed to be performed
• :on_success: method-name that is called when the update was succesfully performed, this could be used for audit-logging a.o.

The on_the_spot_edit also accepts options:

• :type : :textarea, :select or :checkbox (none means default edit)
• :ok_text : the text for the ok-button
• :cancel_text : the text for the cancel-button
• :display_text: if you want to overrule the displayed text, especially useful when using your own :url or :loadurl
• :tooltip : the tooltip-text
• :form_css: the css class for the form
• :input_css: the css class for the input itself
• :rows: for textarea, the number of rows, defaults to 5
• :columns: for textarea, the number of columns, defaults to 40
• :data: for select, the lookup-data, should be in an array of id-value pairs. E.g. [[1, 'ok'], [2, 'not ok'], [3, 'not decided']].
• :loadurl: for select, an url that will return the data in JSON format (use instead of :data)
• :url: URL to post to if you don't want to use the standard routes
• :selected: Text selected by default on edit (boolean, default is false)
• :callback: The name of a javascript function that is called after form has been submitted
• :display_method: the name of a method that is used to get the value to display of a field. When you use this, we will automatically attempt to look up the raw value of the field to edit. This differs from the :display_text option, as this will also be called after update. This supersedes the :display_text option.
• :raw: if set to true, evaluate the field value as raw HTML.
• :onblur: accepts cancel, submit or ignore changes the behavior of the onblur handler accordingly

For the texts and css classes: if a text is not specified, the default is taken from the on_the_spot.en.yml (or your current language).

E.g. in the translations file on_the_spot.en.yml you could do the following to get the inline editor look good when using bootstrap:

en:
  on_the_spot:
    ok: <button class="btn btn-primary btn-sm">Ok</button>
    cancel: <button class="btn btn-sm">Cancel</button>
    tooltip: Click to edit ...
    access_not_allowed: Access is not allowed
    form_css: 'form form-inline'
    input_css: 'form-control'

Each element that is editable will have the on_the_spot_editing class.

When an element is moused over, it will get the on_the_spot_over class.

You can use these classes to style the elements.

<%= on_the_spot_edit @user, :name %>

<%= on_the_spot_edit @user, :description, :type => :textarea, :rows => 10, :columns => 55 %>

<%= on_the_spot_edit @user, :rating, :type => :select, :data => [[1, 'good'], [2, 'mediocre'], [3, 'bad']] %>

Somewhere in a .js file:
function testCallback(object, value, settings) {
  console.log(object);
  console.log(value);
  console.log(settings);
}

<%= on_the_spot_edit @user, :name, :callback => 'testCallback' %>

When using on_the_spot together with cancan, you will have to explicitly exclude the on_the_spot method, like so:

load_and_authorize_resource :except => [:update_attribute_on_the_spot, :get_attribute_on_the_spot]

The load_and_authorize_resource will try to find the object, based on the id in the parameters, but on_the_spot uses a different encoding to store the object, field and id in one attribute. So if you exclude that, there will not be a problem.

If you want to test access-rights, you can do so by specifying a method which will be called

In your controller write:

can_edit_on_the_spot :check_access

def check_access(object, field)
  # verify that the current user has access to edit/see the field of given object
end

Note, there are two identical ways to add this: either you use the old format : can_edit_on_the_spot :method_name or you could use the new format: can_edit_on_the_spot is_allowed: :check_access. Both are identical

If you want to perform some action upon succesfully updating a field, you can specify a method to do just that.

In your controller write:

can_edit_on_the_spot on_success: :log_changes

protected

def log_changes(updated_object, field, value)
  Rails.logger.debug("We updated #{updated_object.name} and set #{field} to #{value}")
end

There is an example rails3-project called on_the_spot_tester

As jEditable depends on jQuery, your rails3 project needs to use jQuery. It will not work if you use Prototype instead, in your rails3 project. I have written an article here how to start a fresh rails3 project, using jQuery. In short, you add the following to your Gemfile:

gem "jquery-rails"

and, after a bundle install, you run

rails g jquery:install

That will download and install all the necessary files for you.

• Fork the project.
• Make your feature addition or bug fix.
• Add tests for it. This is important so I don't break it in a future version unintentionally.
• Commit, do not mess with rakefile, version, or history. (if you want to have your own version, that is fine but bump version in a commit by itself I can ignore when I pull)
• Send me a pull request. Bonus points for topic branches.

Copyright (c) 2010 nathanvda. See LICENSE for details.