automatically load a javascript function after loading page

Question

I'm new to Rails and didn't really understand the asset pipeline by now…

I want to let a

views/product/product.js 

automatically fire after the

views/product/index.html.erb 

was rendered for DRY reasons.

Is there a place in the asset pipeline that calls a model.js file after loading any or a partial model.erb file?

I know how to do it manually, and dropped a

app/assets/javascripts/product.js

but then i have to call a doSomethingAfterPageload() Method in new, show. delete etc. Even better, if this works for partials as well.

Answer 1

The asset pipeline under a vanilla configuration is just (simplified explanation) going to take all of js files referenced in the manifest (application.js) and create single, minified, obfuscated file for production. In development, if you include the manifest in your page (should be the layout), you'll end up with js script include tags for each asset that the manifest contains.

A common pattern is to put at yield :javascript block in your layout and then in the individual view, call the javascript function inside of a content_for :javascript do block.

Best way to add page specific javascript in a Rails 3 app?

A fancier approach would be to conditionally execute js based on the controller and action. Here's how that works: http://viget.com/inspire/extending-paul-irishs-comprehensive-dom-ready-execution

Answer 2

IMO, if this js method should be called in each view of the product model, you can defined a layout for product, and called the method inside the layout file.

Answer 3

Taken from here: Asset Pipeline - Rails guides

If you add app/assets/javascripts/<controller>.js it will be available for that particular controller.

So if you add to app/assets/javascripts/product.js:

$(document).ready ->
  alert "page has loaded!"

It will be executed in every view of that controller, like index or edit.

Hope this helps :)