Find the current_controller? in Rails

photo credit: spacesuitcatalyst

Rails provides a very useful current_page?(link) function but I needed a way to find if I was on the current_controller?(link) for adding a css class to menu links. This was useful for when I'm on a deeplink 'users/1/edit' but want to match a menu link to 'users/'. They share the same controller but not a the whole page link.

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#
# A rails helper snippet I find helpful for building main navigation
# when you want to highlight main pages (controllers) when browser
# requests a subpage.
#
# eg. current request '/users/1/edit' but we want to highlight
# the menu link to '/users'. current_page? will be false but
# the current_controller? function will be true
#

# Find if a link is uses the current controller.
# Used in building main navigation to include
# sublinks.
def current_controller?(link)
  url_for(link).include? @controller.controller_name
end

# Create list elements for building navigation
def menu_link_li(text, link, classes = "", include_separator = false, new_tab = false)
  begin
    if current_controller? link
   classes += " selected"
    end
  rescue Exception => e
    # deal with a potential error of not using the helper with a request first being made.
  end
  
  if new_tab
    link_text = link_to text, link, :target => "_blank"
  else
    link_text = link_to text, link
  end
  
  html = %{
#{link_text}
}
  if include_separator
    html += %{
}
  end
  return html
end