Using will_paginate rails plugin with ajax.

will_paginate is great, but... it doesnt support ajax, here the developer explains why.

But actually, it is very common that we would like to use will_paginate with ajax.

On this great post, it explains the hack (READ THAT ARTICLE BEFORE). But how can we use it? for example if we want to update a partial using the collection that returns me the "paginate" method added by the plugin in any active record class.

This is what i did:

First i added the helper(in the mentioned article explains how):

class RemoteLinkRenderer < WillPaginate::LinkRenderer  
 def prepare(collection, options, template)    
  #@remote = options.delete(:remote) || {}  #(1)
  options.delete(:remote)  #(2)
  @remote = options || {}    #(3)
  super  
 end 

 protected  def page_link(page, text, attributes = {})
      @template.link_to_remote(text, {:url => url_for(page), :method =>:get}.merge(@remote))  
 end
end

The options parameter of the "prepare" method, is the hash that will be passed to the options parameter of the link_to_remote helper, but i had to change lines (2) and (3) instead of (1), because the ruby Hash delete method returns the associated value of the key instead of the resulting hash.

So, suppose i want to render a list of users:

This is my controller method:

def index      
 @users = User.paginate(...options..., :page => params[:page], :per_page => 5)    
 respond_to do |format|        
  format.html 
  format.js { render :action => 'show' }    #(4) 
 end            
end    

and this is my view (index.html.erb)

<p>  
 <div id="paginate_refresh">    
  <%= will_paginate (@users, :renderer => 'RemoteLinkRenderer', 
         :loading => "some_js_function()", :complete => "some_other_js_function()") %>  
 </div>
</p> 
<p>  
 <div id="user_refresh">    
  <%= render :partial => "user", :collection => @users %>  
 </div>
</p>

I have a _user.html.erb partial with the user information(i will not show it here because it doesn't matter).

My idea was to use 2 different divs for updating the information and the pagination links.

As you can see i also pass to the will_paginate helper method, the callbacks of my ajax request, this options will go directly to the couple of link_to_remote helpers that the will_paginate helper method renders, you can use here all the options provided by link_to_remote helpers.

In the controller method at (4), i render 'show', which is the rjs template(show.js.rjs) that will be rendered when the call is an ajax request.

And here is this template:

page.replace_html 'user_refresh', :partial => "user", :collection => @users
page.replace_html 'paginate_refresh', will_paginate (@users, :renderer =>'RemoteLinkRenderer',
  :loading => "some_js_function()", :complete => "some_other_js_function()")

And that's it!

I just refresh the two divs with the new information and the new will_paginate links.

Any comments or questions, please leave a message.

Bye