Rails Devise I18n Flash Messages with Twitter Bootstrap

Question 1

I made a wiki page within the devise wiki on github for How To: Integrate I18n Flash Messages with Devise and Bootstrap

Flash Messages For the Site

First we will make a rendered view to make the code concise. Within "app/views/layouts/application.html.erb" I added <%= render 'layouts/messages' %>.

My file looks like:

<body>
  <%= render 'layouts/header' %>
  <div class="container">
    <%= render 'layouts/messages' %>
    <%= yield %>
    <%= render 'layouts/footer' %>
  </div>
</body>

Next we have to make the messages file. Make a new file in "app/views/layouts/_messages.html.erb" and add:

<% flash.each do |key, value| %>
  <div class="alert alert-<%= key %>">
    <a href="#" data-dismiss="alert" class="close">×</a>
      <ul>
        <li>
          <%= value %>
        </li>
      </ul>
  </div>
<% end %>

This will give us flash messages for the entire site.

Flash Messages For Devise

For devise you need to override the way devise handles flash messages. Create a file called devise_helper in "app/helpers/devise_helper.rb".

Inside the file you have to create a method called devise_error_messages!, which is the name of the file that tells devise how to handle flash messages.

module DeviseHelper
  def devise_error_messages!
    return '' if resource.errors.empty?

    messages = resource.errors.full_messages.map { |msg| content_tag(:li, msg) }.join
    html = <<-HTML
    <div class="alert alert-error alert-block"> <button type="button"
    class="close" data-dismiss="alert">x</button>
      #{messages}
    </div>
    HTML

    html.html_safe
  end
end

Next in your devise views you will have to define where you want the error messages to appear. You will need to enter <%= devise_error_messages! %> within the devise pages. An example is entering this within "app/views/devise/registrations/.new.html.erb" (The sign up page)

It should already be within the file, but you can move the code around to customize where it is shown.

CSS For Flash Messages

If you do not want to use the odd blue and yellow alerts that come default, I have set error and alert to have the same colorand success and notice to have the same color. I am using red for errors and alerts, and green for success and notice.

Within my "app/assets/stylesheets/custom.css.scss" I have:

/*flash*/
.alert-error {
    background-color: #f2dede;
    border-color: #eed3d7;
    color: #b94a48;
    text-align: left;
 }

.alert-alert {
    background-color: #f2dede;
    border-color: #eed3d7;
    color: #b94a48;
    text-align: left;
 }

.alert-success {
    background-color: #dff0d8;
    border-color: #d6e9c6;
    color: #468847;
    text-align: left;
 }

.alert-notice {
    background-color: #dff0d8;
    border-color: #d6e9c6;
    color: #468847;
    text-align: left;
 }

Question 2

Here's my 2 cents. Using a case statement to check if the flash names are the older syntax alertor notice and change them to success or danger if they are and leave everything else alone.

<div class="container">
  <% flash.each do |name, msg| %>
    <% if msg.is_a?(String) %>
      <div class="alert alert-<%= flash_class_name(name) %>" role="alert">
        <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="alert"><span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
        <span class="sr-only">Close</span>
        </button>
        <%= content_tag :div, msg, :id => "flash_#{name}" %>
      </div>
    <% end %>
  <% end %>
</div>

and a helper method

def flash_class_name(name)
    case name
    when 'notice' then 'success'
    when 'alert'  then 'danger'
    else name
    end
end

Question 3

If you use Sass in your app, you can extend BS classes alert-info and alert-danger with Devise's alert-notice and alert-alert respectively, in a way like this:

.alert-notice {
  @extend .alert-info
}

.alert-alert {
  @extend .alert-danger
}

By adding this to your *.scss, Devise flash messages will inherit the styles of BS info and danger alerts.

http://sass-lang.com/guide (Extend/Inheritance section)

Question 4

The simplest solution I've found is to use a common partial for all flash messages while checking for :notice and :alertto replace with the necessary bootstrap class.

So make /views/shared/_alerts.html.erb like this -

<% flash.each do |message_type, message| %>
<div class="alert alert-<%= flash_class_name(message_type) %> alert-dismissable">
    <span><%= message %></span>
    <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="alert" aria-label="Close">
        <span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
    </button>
  </div>
<% end %>

Add a helper method (I've added it to the application helper) like this -

def flash_class_name(name)
    case name
    when "notice" then "success"
    when "alert"  then "danger"
    else name
    end
end

Include _alerts.html.erb in the application layout (or the parent layout for your application).

That's it!

Question 5

With Boostrap 3.1, for me works in this way:

 html = <<-HTML
    <div class="alert alert-danger alert-dismissible" role="alert">
      <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="alert"><span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span><span class="sr-only">Close</span></button>
      <strong>#{sentence}</strong>
      <ul>
        #{messages}
      </ul>
    </div>

HTML

Question 6

Actually bootstrap provide some alert class, please try for class with alert alert-warning for yellow warning, alert alert-success for green warning, alert alert-danger for red warning.

And for the I18n you can just directly using that just like on the view.

Also if you want to forcing using your class rather than bootstrap class, you can using !important at your class for example:

.alert
{
  background: #f3f3f3 !important;
  color: black !important;
}

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Rails Devise I18n Flash Messages with Twitter Bootstrap

Update: This post displays a correct version of what I am trying to do. The problem I have is that the styling does not look the same. I believe it is because of the html tag.

Update2

Flash Messages For the Site

Flash Messages For Devise

CSS For Flash Messages