Behave like a controller

Because it inherits from ActionController::Base, Coupdoeil::Popover allows the use of familiar interfaces like:

• layout selection
• rendering API (render, render_to_string)
• callbacks (before_action, around_action …)
• helpers (and helper inclusion)

Layout

Layout system is the same as for ActionController::Base. By default, it will be the "popover" layout, located in app/popovers/layouts/popover.html.erb, but you can change this behavior with the layout method or the layout: option passed to render.

You can create new layouts for specific use-cases. For example, one main layout and one for tooltips, or action menus. Default directory is app/popovers/layouts/. The layout template must call yield to render the content.

<div class="main-popover-layout">
  <%= yield %>
</div>

Note that the layout HTML element should not have a uniq CSS id as it can be rendered many times at once within the same document.

You can see different layout usage in examples.

Rendering

default

class ContactPopover < ApplicationPopover
  def summary
    # not specified, will render app/popovers/contact_popover/summary.html.erb
  end
end

render another template

class ContactPopover < ApplicationPopover
  def details
  end
  
  def summary
    # will render app/popovers/contact_popover/details.html.erb
    render :details
  end
end

render partial

class ContactPopover < ApplicationPopover
  def summary
    # will render app/popovers/contact_popover/_business_card.html.erb, without layout
    render partial: "business_card"
  end
end

Remember that partials have their own layouts

Any renderable object, like a ViewComponent

class ContactPopover < ApplicationPopover
  def details
  end
  
  def summary
    render ContactSummaryComponent.new
  end
end

Callbacks

If many popovers of the same class are relying on the same params, you can use before action callbacks to set up common state.

class ContactPopover < ApplicationPopover
  before_actions :set_contact
  
  def details
  end
  
  def summary
  end
  
  private
  
  def set_contact
    @contact = params[:contact]
  end
end

Helpers

All application helpers are available when rendering a popover unless config.action_controller.include_all_helpers option is set to false.

All helper_methods already defined on ApplicationController at boot time are delegated to the current context controller when rendering a popover. For example, this includes current_user helper by Devise or allowed_to? helper by ActionPolicy. This delegation aims to ensure consistency between regular views and popovers.

Both helpers inclusions can be disabled. See include_all_helpers and delegate_helper_methods configuration options.