JsRoutes

Generates javascript file that defines all Rails named routes as javascript helpers

Intallation

Your Rails Gemfile:

gem "js-routes"

Basic Setup (Asset Pipeline)

Require js routes file in application.js or other bundle

/*
= require js-routes
*/

Also in order to flush asset pipeline cache sometimes you might need to run:

rake tmp:cache:clear

This cache is not flushed on server restart in development environment.

Important: If routes.js file is not updated after some configuration change you need to run this command again.

Advanced Setup

If you need to customize routes file create initializer, like config/initializers/jsroutes.rb:

JsRoutes.setup do |config|
  config.option = value
end

Available options:

• default_url_options - default parameters to be used to generate url
  • Note that currently only optional parameters (like :format) can be defaulted.
  • Example: {:format => "json"}
  • Default: {}
• exclude - Array of regexps to exclude from js routes.
  • Note that regexp applied to named route not to URL
  • Default: []
• include - Array of regexps to include in js routes.
  • Note that regexp applied to named route not to URL
  • Default: []
• namespace - global object used to access routes.
  • Supports nested namespace like MyProject.routes
  • Default: Routes
• prefix - String representing a url path to prepend to all paths.
  • Example: http://yourdomain.com. This will cause route helpers to generate full path only.
  • Default: blank

You can generate routes files on the application side like this:

JsRoutes.generate!("#{path}/app_routes.js", :namespace => "AppRoutes", :exclude => [/^admin_/, /^api_/])
JsRoutes.generate!("#{path}/adm_routes.js", :namespace => "AdmRoutes", :include => /^admin_/)
JsRoutes.generate!("#{path}/api_routes.js", :namespace => "ApiRoutes", :include => /^api_/, :default_url_options => {:format => "json"})

In order to generate javascript to string and manipulate them yourself use: Like:

routes_js = JsRoutes.generate(options)

Usage

Configuration above will create a nice javascript file with Routes object that has all the rails routes available:

Routes.users_path() // => "/users"
Routes.user_path(1) // => "/users/1"
Routes.user_path(1, {format: 'json'}) // => "/users/1.json"
Routes.new_user_project_path(1, {format: 'json'}) // => "/users/1/projects/new.json"
Routes.user_project_path(1,2, {q: 'hello', custom: true}) // => "/users/1/projects/2?q=hello&custom=true"
Routes.user_project_path(1,2, {hello: ['world', 'mars']}) // => "/users/1/projects/2?hello%5B%5D=world&hello%5B%5D=mars"

Using serialized object as route function arguments:

var google = {id: 1, name: "Google"};
Routes.company_path(google) // => "/companies/1"
var google = {id: 1, name: "Google", to_param: "google"};
Routes.company_path(google) // => "/companies/google"

In order to make routes helpers available globally:

jQuery.extend(window, Routes)

What about security?

js-routes itself do not have security holes. It makes URLs without access protection more reachable by potential attacker. In order to prevent this use :exclude option for sensitive urls like /admin_/

Spork

When using Spork and Spork.trap_method(Rails::Application::RoutesReloader, :reload!) you should also do:

Spork.trap_method(JsRoutes, :generate!)

Advantages over alternatives

There are some alternatives available. Most of them has only basic feature and don't reach the level of quality I accept. Advantages of this one are:

• Rails3 support
• Rich options set
• Support Rails #to_param convention for seo optimized paths
• Well tested

Thanks to Contributors

Have fun