#103 Site Wide Announcements

Sometimes you need to display an administrative announcement to every page on the site and give the users the ability to hide the announcement. See how in this episode.

script/generate scaffold announcement message:text starts_at:datetime ends_at:datetime
script/generate controller javascripts

<!-- layouts/application.html.erb -->
<% unless current_announcements.empty? %>
<div id="announcement">
  <% for announcement in current_announcements %>
    <p><%=h announcement.message %></p>
  <% end %>
  <p><%= link_to_remote "Hide this message", :url => "/javascripts/hide_announcement.js" %></p>
</div>


# models/announcement.rb
def self.current_announcements(hide_time)
  with_scope :find => { :conditions => "starts_at <= now() AND ends_at >= now()" } do
    if hide_time.nil?
      find(:all)
    else
      find(:all, :conditions => ["updated_at > ? OR starts_at > ?", hide_time, hide_time])
    end
  end
end

# application_helper.rb
def current_announcements
  @current_announcements ||= Announcement.current_announcements(session[:announcement_hide_time])
end

# javascripts_controller.rb
def hide_announcement
  session[:announcement_hide_time] = Time.now
end

# hide_announcement.js.rjs
page[:announcement].hide

# routes.rb
map.connect ":controller/:action.:format"