Rails builder for creating tables and calendars inspired by ActionView’s FormBuilder, updated for Rails 3.0beta This is a fork of Petrik de Heus plugin for earlier versions of Rails. Note the new idiomatic use of “<%=” for the table_for and calendar_for functions.

table_for has methods for each tag used in a table (<table>, <thead> <tr>, <td>, etc.)

A basic example would look like this:

@front_men = [FrontMan.new(1, 'David St. Hubbins'), FrontMan.new(2, 'David Lee Roth')]

<%= table_for(@front_men) do |t| %>
  <%= t.head do %>
    <%= t.r do %>
      <%= t.h('Id') %>
      <%= t.h('Name') %>
    <% end %>
  <% end %>
  <%= t.body do |front_man| %>
    <%= t.r do %>
      <%= t.d(h(front_man.id)) %>
      <%= t.d(h(front_man.name)) %>
    <% end %>
  <% end %>
<% end %>

You can pass an array to the head method:

<%= t.head('Id', 'Name') %>

The body and r method can be combined for easier usage:

<%= t.body_r do |front_man| %>
  <%= t.d(h(front_man.id)) %>
  <%= t.d(h(front_man.name)) %>
<% end %>

You can also pass blocks to the d and h methods for more flexibility:

<%= t.d(:class => 'name') do %>
    <%= link_to(h(front_man.name), front_man_url(front_man)) %>
<% end %>

All tag methods are rails tag methods, so they can have extra html options.

@drummers = [Drummer.new(1, 'John "Stumpy" Pepys'), Drummer.new(2, 'Eric "Stumpy Joe" Childs')]

<%= table_for(@drummers, :html => { :id => 'spinal_tap', :class => 'drummers'}) do |t| %>
  <%= t.body_r(:class => 'row') do |e| %>
    <%= t.d(h(e.id), :title => 'id') %>
    <%= t.d(h(e.name)) %>
  <% end %>
<% end %>

… which produces the following html:

<table class="drummers" id="spinal_tap">
  <tbody>
    <tr class="row">
      <td title="id">1</td>
      <td>John &quot;Stumpy&quot; Pepys</td>
    </tr>
    <tr class="row">
      <td title="id">2</td>
      <td>Eric &quot;Stumpy Joe&quot; Childs</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

You can customize the table by creating your own TableBuilder:

<%= table_for(@drummers, :builder => PagedTableBuilder) do |t| %>

calendar_for creates a table like table_for. All objects get sorted per day of the month

A basic example would look like this:

@tasks = Task.this_month

<%= calendar_for(@tasks) do |t| %>
  <%= t.head('mon', 'tue', 'wed', 'thu', 'fri', 'sat', 'sun') %>
  <%= t.day do |day, tasks| %>
    <%= day.day %>
    <% tasks.each do |task| %>
      <%= h(task.name) %>
    <% end %>
  <% end %>
<% end %>

To show a different month you can pass the :year and :month options:

<%= calendar_for(@tasks, :year => 2009, :month => 1) do |t| %>

To highlight a different day you can pass the :today option:

<%= calendar_for(@tasks, :today => Date.civil(2008, 12, 26)) do |t| %>

By default the :date method is called on the objects for sorting. To use another method you can pass the :day_method option:

<%= t.day(:day_method => :calendar_date) do |day, tasks| %>

If you want to add id’s to your td tag you can pass a pattern:

<%= t.day(:id => 'day_%d') do |day, tasks| %>

rails plugin install git://github.com/wizardwerdna/table_builder.git

Thanks to Petrik de Heus and Sean Dague.

Original Work Copyright © 2008 Petrik de Heus, released under the MIT license. Fork revisions Copyright © 2010 Andrew C. Greenberg, released under the MIT license