Module ActionView::Helpers::AssetTagHelper
In: actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb

This module provides methods for generating HTML that links views to assets such as images, javascripts, stylesheets, and feeds. These methods do not verify the assets exist before linking to them.

Using asset hosts

By default, Rails links to these assets on the current host in the public folder, but you can direct Rails to link to assets from a dedicated assets server by setting ActionController::Base.asset_host in your environment.rb. For example, let’s say your asset host is assets.example.com.

  ActionController::Base.asset_host = "assets.example.com"
  image_tag("rails.png")
    => <img src="http://assets.example.com/images/rails.png" alt="Rails" />
  stylesheet_include_tag("application")
    => <link href="http://assets.example.com/stylesheets/application.css" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

This is useful since browsers typically open at most two connections to a single host, which means your assets often wait in single file for their turn to load. You can alleviate this by using a %d wildcard in asset_host (for example, "assets%d.example.com") to automatically distribute asset requests among four hosts (e.g., assets0.example.com through assets3.example.com) so browsers will open eight connections rather than two.

  image_tag("rails.png")
    => <img src="http://assets0.example.com/images/rails.png" alt="Rails" />
  stylesheet_include_tag("application")
    => <link href="http://assets3.example.com/stylesheets/application.css" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

To do this, you can either setup four actual hosts, or you can use wildcard DNS to CNAME the wildcard to a single asset host. You can read more about setting up your DNS CNAME records from your ISP.

Note: This is purely a browser performance optimization and is not meant for server load balancing. See www.die.net/musings/page_load_time/ for background.

Methods

Constants

ASSETS_DIR = defined?(RAILS_ROOT) ? "#{RAILS_ROOT}/public" : "public"
JAVASCRIPTS_DIR = "#{ASSETS_DIR}/javascripts"
STYLESHEETS_DIR = "#{ASSETS_DIR}/stylesheets"
JAVASCRIPT_DEFAULT_SOURCES = ['prototype', 'effects', 'dragdrop', 'controls'] unless const_defined?(:JAVASCRIPT_DEFAULT_SOURCES)

Public Class methods

Register one or more additional JavaScript files to be included when javascript_include_tag :defaults is called. This method is typically intended to be called from plugin initialization to register additional .js files that the plugin installed in public/javascripts.

[Source]

# File actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb, line 206
      def self.register_javascript_include_default(*sources)
        @@javascript_default_sources.concat(sources)
      end

Public Instance methods

Returns a link tag that browsers and news readers can use to auto-detect an RSS or ATOM feed. The type can either be :rss (default) or :atom. Control the link options in url_for format using the url_options. You can modify the LINK tag itself in tag_options.

Options:

  • :rel - Specify the relation of this link, defaults to "alternate"
  • :type - Override the auto-generated mime type
  • :title - Specify the title of the link, defaults to the type

Examples

 auto_discovery_link_tag # =>
    <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://www.currenthost.com/controller/action" />
 auto_discovery_link_tag(:atom) # =>
    <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="ATOM" href="http://www.currenthost.com/controller/action" />
 auto_discovery_link_tag(:rss, {:action => "feed"}) # =>
    <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://www.currenthost.com/controller/feed" />
 auto_discovery_link_tag(:rss, {:action => "feed"}, {:title => "My RSS"}) # =>
    <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="My RSS" href="http://www.currenthost.com/controller/feed" />
 auto_discovery_link_tag(:rss, {:controller => "news", :action => "feed"}) # =>
    <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://www.currenthost.com/news/feed" />
 auto_discovery_link_tag(:rss, "http://www.example.com/feed.rss", {:title => "Example RSS"}) # =>
    <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Example RSS" href="http://www.example.com/feed" />

[Source]

# File actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb, line 69
      def auto_discovery_link_tag(type = :rss, url_options = {}, tag_options = {})
        tag(
          "link",
          "rel"   => tag_options[:rel] || "alternate",
          "type"  => tag_options[:type] || Mime::Type.lookup_by_extension(type.to_s).to_s,
          "title" => tag_options[:title] || type.to_s.upcase,
          "href"  => url_options.is_a?(Hash) ? url_for(url_options.merge(:only_path => false)) : url_options
        )
      end

Computes the path to an image asset in the public images directory. Full paths from the document root will be passed through. Used internally by image_tag to build the image path.

Examples

  image_path("edit")                                         # => /images/edit
  image_path("edit.png")                                     # => /images/edit.png
  image_path("icons/edit.png")                               # => /images/icons/edit.png
  image_path("/icons/edit.png")                              # => /icons/edit.png
  image_path("http://www.railsapplication.com/img/edit.png") # => http://www.railsapplication.com/img/edit.png

[Source]

# File actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb, line 326
      def image_path(source)
        compute_public_path(source, 'images')
      end

Returns an html image tag for the source. The source can be a full path or a file that exists in your public images directory.

Options

You can add HTML attributes using the options. The options supports two additional keys for convienence and conformance:

  • :alt - If no alt text is given, the file name part of the source is used (capitalized and without the extension)
  • :size - Supplied as "{Width}x{Height}", so "30x45" becomes width="30" and height="45". :size will be ignored if the value is not in the correct format.

Examples

 image_tag("icon")  # =>
   <img src="/images/icon" alt="Icon" />
 image_tag("icon.png")  # =>
   <img src="/images/icon.png" alt="Icon" />
 image_tag("icon.png", :size => "16x10", :alt => "Edit Entry")  # =>
   <img src="/images/icon.png" width="16" height="10" alt="Edit Entry" />
 image_tag("/icons/icon.gif", :size => "16x16")  # =>
   <img src="/icons/icon.gif" width="16" height="16" alt="Icon" />
 image_tag("/icons/icon.gif", :height => '32', :width => '32') # =>
   <img alt="Icon" height="32" src="/icons/icon.gif" width="32" />
 image_tag("/icons/icon.gif", :class => "menu_icon") # =>
   <img alt="Icon" class="menu_icon" src="/icons/icon.gif" />

[Source]

# File actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb, line 356
      def image_tag(source, options = {})
        options.symbolize_keys!

        options[:src] = image_path(source)
        options[:alt] ||= File.basename(options[:src], '.*').split('.').first.capitalize

        if options[:size]
          options[:width], options[:height] = options[:size].split("x") if options[:size] =~ %r{^\d+x\d+$}
          options.delete(:size)
        end

        tag("img", options)
      end

Returns an html script tag for each of the sources provided. You can pass in the filename (.js extension is optional) of javascript files that exist in your public/javascripts directory for inclusion into the current page or you can pass the full path relative to your document root. To include the Prototype and Scriptaculous javascript libraries in your application, pass :defaults as the source. When using :defaults, if an application.js file exists in your public javascripts directory, it will be included as well. You can modify the html attributes of the script tag by passing a hash as the last argument.

Examples

  javascript_include_tag "xmlhr" # =>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/xmlhr.js"></script>

  javascript_include_tag "xmlhr.js" # =>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/xmlhr.js"></script>

  javascript_include_tag "common.javascript", "/elsewhere/cools" # =>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/common.javascript"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/elsewhere/cools.js"></script>

  javascript_include_tag "http://www.railsapplication.com/xmlhr" # =>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.railsapplication.com/xmlhr.js"></script>

  javascript_include_tag "http://www.railsapplication.com/xmlhr.js" # =>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.railsapplication.com/xmlhr.js"></script>

  javascript_include_tag :defaults # =>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/prototype.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/effects.js"></script>
    ...
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/application.js"></script>
  • = The application.js file is only referenced if it exists

Though it’s not really recommended practice, if you need to extend the default JavaScript set for any reason (e.g., you’re going to be using a certain .js file in every action), then take a look at the register_javascript_include_default method.

You can also include all javascripts in the javascripts directory using :all as the source:

  javascript_include_tag :all # =>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/prototype.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/effects.js"></script>
    ...
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/application.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/shop.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/checkout.js"></script>

Note that the default javascript files will be included first. So Prototype and Scriptaculous are available to all subsequently included files.

Caching multiple javascripts into one

You can also cache multiple javascripts into one file, which requires less HTTP connections to download and can better be compressed by gzip (leading to faster transfers). Caching will only happen if ActionController::Base.perform_caching is set to true (which is the case by default for the Rails production environment, but not for the development environment).

Examples

  javascript_include_tag :all, :cache => true # when ActionController::Base.perform_caching is false =>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/prototype.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/effects.js"></script>
    ...
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/application.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/shop.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/checkout.js"></script>

  javascript_include_tag :all, :cache => true # when ActionController::Base.perform_caching is true =>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/all.js"></script>

  javascript_include_tag "prototype", "cart", "checkout", :cache => "shop" # when ActionController::Base.perform_caching is false =>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/prototype.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/cart.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/checkout.js"></script>

  javascript_include_tag "prototype", "cart", "checkout", :cache => "shop" # when ActionController::Base.perform_caching is false =>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/javascripts/shop.js"></script>

[Source]

# File actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb, line 174
      def javascript_include_tag(*sources)
        options = sources.extract_options!.stringify_keys
        cache   = options.delete("cache")

        if ActionController::Base.perform_caching && cache
          joined_javascript_name = (cache == true ? "all" : cache) + ".js"
          joined_javascript_path = File.join(JAVASCRIPTS_DIR, joined_javascript_name)

          if !file_exist?(joined_javascript_path)
            File.open(joined_javascript_path, "w+") do |cache|
              javascript_paths = expand_javascript_sources(sources).collect do |source|
                compute_public_path(source, 'javascripts', 'js', false)
              end

              cache.write(join_asset_file_contents(javascript_paths))
            end
          end

          content_tag("script", "", {
            "type" => Mime::JS, "src" => javascript_path(joined_javascript_name)
          }.merge(options))
        else
          expand_javascript_sources(sources).collect do |source|
            content_tag("script", "", { "type" => Mime::JS, "src" => javascript_path(source) }.merge(options))
          end.join("\n")
        end
      end

Computes the path to a javascript asset in the public javascripts directory. If the source filename has no extension, .js will be appended. Full paths from the document root will be passed through. Used internally by javascript_include_tag to build the script path.

Examples

  javascript_path "xmlhr" # => /javascripts/xmlhr.js
  javascript_path "dir/xmlhr.js" # => /javascripts/dir/xmlhr.js
  javascript_path "/dir/xmlhr" # => /dir/xmlhr.js
  javascript_path "http://www.railsapplication.com/js/xmlhr" # => http://www.railsapplication.com/js/xmlhr.js
  javascript_path "http://www.railsapplication.com/js/xmlhr.js" # => http://www.railsapplication.com/js/xmlhr.js

[Source]

# File actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb, line 90
      def javascript_path(source)
        compute_public_path(source, 'javascripts', 'js')
      end

Returns a stylesheet link tag for the sources specified as arguments. If you don’t specify an extension, .css will be appended automatically. You can modify the link attributes by passing a hash as the last argument.

Examples

  stylesheet_link_tag "style" # =>
    <link href="/stylesheets/style.css" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

  stylesheet_link_tag "style.css" # =>
    <link href="/stylesheets/style.css" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

  stylesheet_link_tag "http://www.railsapplication.com/style.css" # =>
    <link href="http://www.railsapplication.com/style.css" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

  stylesheet_link_tag "style", :media => "all" # =>
    <link href="/stylesheets/style.css" media="all" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

  stylesheet_link_tag "style", :media => "print" # =>
    <link href="/stylesheets/style.css" media="print" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

  stylesheet_link_tag "random.styles", "/css/stylish" # =>
    <link href="/stylesheets/random.styles" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <link href="/css/stylish.css" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

You can also include all styles in the stylesheet directory using :all as the source:

  stylesheet_link_tag :all # =>
    <link href="/stylesheets/style1.css"  media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <link href="/stylesheets/styleB.css"  media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <link href="/stylesheets/styleX2.css" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

Caching multiple stylesheets into one

You can also cache multiple stylesheets into one file, which requires less HTTP connections and can better be compressed by gzip (leading to faster transfers). Caching will only happen if ActionController::Base.perform_caching is set to true (which is the case by default for the Rails production environment, but not for the development environment). Examples:

Examples

  stylesheet_link_tag :all, :cache => true # when ActionController::Base.perform_caching is false =>
    <link href="/stylesheets/style1.css"  media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <link href="/stylesheets/styleB.css"  media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <link href="/stylesheets/styleX2.css" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

  stylesheet_link_tag :all, :cache => true # when ActionController::Base.perform_caching is true =>
    <link href="/stylesheets/all.css"  media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

  stylesheet_link_tag "shop", "cart", "checkout", :cache => "payment" # when ActionController::Base.perform_caching is false =>
    <link href="/stylesheets/shop.css"  media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <link href="/stylesheets/cart.css"  media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <link href="/stylesheets/checkout.css" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

  stylesheet_link_tag "shop", "cart", "checkout", :cache => "payment" # when ActionController::Base.perform_caching is true =>
    <link href="/stylesheets/payment.css"  media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

[Source]

# File actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb, line 283
      def stylesheet_link_tag(*sources)
        options = sources.extract_options!.stringify_keys
        cache   = options.delete("cache")

        if ActionController::Base.perform_caching && cache
          joined_stylesheet_name = (cache == true ? "all" : cache) + ".css"
          joined_stylesheet_path = File.join(STYLESHEETS_DIR, joined_stylesheet_name)

          if !file_exist?(joined_stylesheet_path)
            File.open(joined_stylesheet_path, "w+") do |cache|
              stylesheet_paths = expand_stylesheet_sources(sources).collect do |source|
                compute_public_path(source, 'stylesheets', 'css', false) 
              end

              cache.write(join_asset_file_contents(stylesheet_paths))
            end
          end

          tag("link", {
            "rel" => "stylesheet", "type" => Mime::CSS, "media" => "screen",
            "href" => html_escape(stylesheet_path(joined_stylesheet_name))
          }.merge(options), false, false)
        else
          options.delete("cache")

          expand_stylesheet_sources(sources).collect do |source|
            tag("link", {
              "rel" => "stylesheet", "type" => Mime::CSS, "media" => "screen", "href" => html_escape(stylesheet_path(source))
            }.merge(options), false, false)
          end.join("\n")
        end
      end

Computes the path to a stylesheet asset in the public stylesheets directory. If the source filename has no extension, .css will be appended. Full paths from the document root will be passed through. Used internally by stylesheet_link_tag to build the stylesheet path.

Examples

  stylesheet_path "style" # => /stylesheets/style.css
  stylesheet_path "dir/style.css" # => /stylesheets/dir/style.css
  stylesheet_path "/dir/style.css" # => /dir/style.css
  stylesheet_path "http://www.railsapplication.com/css/style" # => http://www.railsapplication.com/css/style.css
  stylesheet_path "http://www.railsapplication.com/css/style.js" # => http://www.railsapplication.com/css/style.css

[Source]

# File actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb, line 225
      def stylesheet_path(source)
        compute_public_path(source, 'stylesheets', 'css')
      end

Private Instance methods

Pick an asset host for this source. Returns nil if no host is set, the host if no wildcard is set, or the host interpolated with the numbers 0-3 if it contains %d. The number is the source hash mod 4.

[Source]

# File actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb, line 421
        def compute_asset_host(source)
          if host = ActionController::Base.asset_host
            host % (source.hash % 4)
          end
        end

Add the .ext if not present. Return full URLs otherwise untouched. Prefix with /dir/ if lacking a leading /. Account for relative URL roots. Rewrite the asset path for cache-busting asset ids. Include a single or wildcarded asset host, if configured, with the correct request protocol.

[Source]

# File actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb, line 386
        def compute_public_path(source, dir, ext = nil, include_host = true)
          cache_key = [ @controller.request.protocol,
                        ActionController::Base.asset_host,
                        @controller.request.relative_url_root,
                        dir, source, ext, include_host ].join

          ActionView::Base.computed_public_paths[cache_key] ||=
            begin
              source += ".#{ext}" if File.extname(source).blank? && ext

              if source =~ %r{^[-a-z]+://}
                source
              else
                source = "/#{dir}/#{source}" unless source[0] == ?/
                source = "#{@controller.request.relative_url_root}#{source}"
                rewrite_asset_path!(source)

                if include_host
                  host = compute_asset_host(source)

                  unless host.blank? or host =~ %r{^[-a-z]+://}
                    host = "#{@controller.request.protocol}#{host}"
                  end

                  "#{host}#{source}"
                else
                  source
                end
              end
            end
        end

[Source]

# File actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb, line 450
        def expand_javascript_sources(sources)          
          case
          when sources.include?(:all)
            all_javascript_files = Dir[File.join(JAVASCRIPTS_DIR, '*.js')].collect { |file| File.basename(file).split(".", 0).first }.sort
            sources = ((@@javascript_default_sources.dup & all_javascript_files) + all_javascript_files).uniq

          when sources.include?(:defaults)
            sources = sources[0..(sources.index(:defaults))] + 
              @@javascript_default_sources.dup + 
              sources[(sources.index(:defaults) + 1)..sources.length]

            sources.delete(:defaults)
            sources << "application" if file_exist?(File.join(JAVASCRIPTS_DIR, "application.js"))
          end

          sources
        end

[Source]

# File actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb, line 468
        def expand_stylesheet_sources(sources)
          if sources.first == :all
            @@all_stylesheet_sources ||= Dir[File.join(STYLESHEETS_DIR, '*.css')].collect { |file| File.basename(file).split(".", 1).first }.sort
          else
            sources
          end
        end

[Source]

# File actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb, line 371
        def file_exist?(path)
          @@file_exist_cache ||= {}
          if !(@@file_exist_cache[path] ||= File.exist?(path))
            @@file_exist_cache[path] = true
            false
          else
            true
          end
        end

[Source]

# File actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb, line 476
        def join_asset_file_contents(paths)
          paths.collect { |path| File.read(File.join(ASSETS_DIR, path.split("?").first)) }.join("\n\n")
        end

Use the RAILS_ASSET_ID environment variable or the source’s modification time as its cache-busting asset id.

[Source]

# File actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb, line 429
        def rails_asset_id(source)
          if asset_id = ENV["RAILS_ASSET_ID"]
            asset_id
          else
            path = File.join(ASSETS_DIR, source)

            if File.exist?(path)
              File.mtime(path).to_i.to_s
            else
              ''
            end
          end
        end

Break out the asset path rewrite so you wish to put the asset id someplace other than the query string.

[Source]

# File actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb, line 445
        def rewrite_asset_path!(source)
          asset_id = rails_asset_id(source)
          source << "?#{asset_id}" if !asset_id.blank?
        end

[Validate]