Working with the flash hash

The flash hash is what Rails uses to display messages (both notices and errors). Since it's a Hash, you can assign any key/value pair that you want, but I tend to stick with flash[:notice] for a success message, and flash[:error] for an error message.

In my opinion, using the flash hash is a little confusing. I haven't come across a book or tutorial that fully explains how to control it properly. So, here are the options for using the flash hash in Rails.

flash[:key] and flash.now[:key]

The following method shows how to best use the flash hash:

def create
  @user = User.new(params[:user])
  respond_to do |format|
    if @user.save
      flash[:notice] = 'User was successfully created.'
      format.html { redirect_to admin_users_path }
    else
      flash.now[:error] = 'The user could not be created'
      format.html { render :action => 'new' }
    end
  end
rescue Exception => ex
  logger.warn('ERROR: ' + ex.message)
  flash.now[:error] = 'There was an error creating the user.'
  render :action => 'new'
end

Notice that I use the flash hash in two different ways: flash[:key] and flash.now[:key]. The way I use it depends on when I want it displayed. The flash[:key] usage should only be used before redirection, because it makes the object available for the current action and the next action. The flash.now[:key] usage should be used when you only want the flash object to be available to the current action.

Here's an example why you shouldn't use flash[:key] without redirection. Let's say this is your controller:

class MainController < ApplicationController
  def index
    flash[:notice] = 'Welcome to the site!'
  end
  
  def profile
  end
end

When you visit the index page, you'll see the message 'Welcome to the site!.' If you then click a link from the index page that takes you to the profile page, you'll still see the message 'Welcome to the site!' because the flash[:key] is available to the current action and the next action.

Displaying the flash

Here is a really helpful method to display the contents of the flash hash that I modified from one of Ryan Bates' awesome Railscasts:

<%- flash.each do |key, msg| -%>
	<div id="<%= key %>">
		<p style="float:right;"><%= link_to_function 'X', "Effect.Fade('#{key}')" %></p>
		<p><%= msg %></p>
		<div class="clear"></div>
	</div>
<%- end -%>

This method will loop through each key in your flash hash and create a div with the name of the key, then put the contents inside with a link to close the message div.

I put this method in a partial called _notice_div.html.erb and include it at the top of my application layout. Here are the styles I use for notices and errors:

#notice { background-color: #A4E7A0; border: 1px solid #26722D; }
#error { background-color: #F0A8A8; border: 1px solid #900; }
#notice, #error { width: 90%; margin: 0 auto 10px auto; padding: 5px; }
#notice p, #error p { margin-left: 20px; padding: 0; font-size: .75em; color: #000; }
#notice a, #error a { text-decoration: none; padding: 0 3px; }
#notice a { border: 1px solid #26722D; color: #26722D; }
#error a { border: 1px solid #900; color: #900; }
#notice a:hover, #error a:hover { color: #333; border: 1px solid #333; }

Tagged: tutorial, css, rails, flash

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