You don't. Layouts are associated with the controller, or the controller's action
render :layout => "admin"
If you want to change it, the better approach would be to do something like
before_filter :login_required before_filter :choose_layout
def index render :layout => @layout end
private
def choose_layout @layout = current_user.is_admin? ? "admin", "public" end
Or you could have one layout that has helpers and partials that changed based on the user.
