I'm OK with the idea of a help button that is a link_to (.... :popup that produce a modal box.
Q1: Can I make it produce a non-modal box? So the help text stays up but the user can continue working?
But I'm trying to to deal with modal dialogue boxes. The most obvious one is a logo box. I'd like to do the login without actually changing the page behind the dialogue box.
Q2: Can :popup produce dialogue boxes? I presume they would be based on partial, but would they need special actions
Its nice to have a 'login' pop-up from a link_to button but suppose I need that same UI popup generated programatically.
def read
if ! @page.acllist.nil? # page has restricted access if @current_user.nil? begin # trigger login dialogue box if javascript ***** # redirect to login page if no javascript *****
end # either logged in or not if @current_user.nil raise Application::AccessControlError \ "You must be logged in return false end if @page.acllist["read"].include(@current_user.name).nil? raise Application::AccessControlError \ "You don't have permission to read that" return false end ..... # continue processing page
Q3: Is there a way to determine if javascript is available? Failing that, how can the "if javascript then ... else redirect and return here" be handled?
Q4: Will things in the controller actually be updated by a modal dialogue box? Or would I have to re-scan the database to update @current_user? How would I cope with non-database variables? Suppose the modal dialogue box asked for a discount code?
Q5: Can I link error handling to dialogue boxes? If so, how can I hand over more parameters (e.g. a redirect to as opposed to a 'stay where you are')?
I know that's a lot for one post, but as you see the questions are related and I'm sure this is something a lot of other people would find useful.