Folks, my original intent for this post was to promote a patch that I submitted to Lighthouse because Pratik marked it as invalid and told me to raise the issue here if I found it to be important. Please find the ticket here: http://rails.lighthouseapp.com/projects/8994/tickets/517-link_to_remote-should-behave-like-remote_form_for.
However, I've pondered the issue over the last few days and I think the root of the problem is actually way deeper than I originally thought. I think, Rails' JavaScript helpers and URL helpers need a certain amount of refactoring for one really simple reason: Pretty much everywhere, Rails follows best practice approaches and advocates a really clean and professional way of "doing things right". Two exceptions to that rule are parts of the JavaScript helpers and URL helpers. Let me be a little bit more specific about issues that I think should at least be considered: - Like I said in the ticket, link_to_remote should populate the href by default to provide a sensible fallback. - submit_to_remote should be renamed or at least aliased to button_to_remote just for the sake of being consistent with link_to/ link_to_remote. - link_to/link_to_remote helpers should at least raise some kind of notice when used with :method => :post/:put/:delete. Links shouldn't be used to post/put/delete on a server. Yes, I know that it actually wraps the whole thing inside a form, but still it's not a good idea. The fact that potentially "destructive" actions should be handled with a button should definitely be advocated. - Not strictly related to the helpers: While I think that mostly beginners use the scaffold feature, I feel that it still should reflect best practices. Therefore, the delete link should be made into a button. Now while most if this stuff isn't an issue for me personally (and it probably neither is for you guys), I feel that there's definitely room for improvement. If I was to decide, I'd totally remove all *_to_remote stuff from the core and force people to write their JavaScript by hand and/or use lowpro. But I think, the above things would be quite easy to implement without being a harsh change. I kept this post short by intention in order for you to really read it, but of course I've got some more ideas regarding these helpers. I'd be more than happy to provide patches if you agree with me that this is an issue worth being addressed. Please let me know what you think. Best, - Clemens --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Core" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-core?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
