Hello, I have a problem with the render :partial method in all my
rails webapplications. I noticed that using render :partial will
generate spaces (mainly top spaces) on the elements inserted.
As all my websites are seperated by module (basicaly header, content,
menu, footer) it's quite a problem as I have to set negative margin-
top to various parts for the site to display as expected and it's
getting very difficult to obtain a cross-browser homogeneous design.
Anyone as the same problem? Any idea what I am doing wrong here?
Have you tried with some literal text as the very first line of the
partial, such as
<p>start of partial</p>
to check the spaces are in fact before the partial, and also
immediately before the render, such as
<p>rendering partial</p><%= render :partial ....%>
(all on one line).
Hello Colin and thanks for the idea, it didn't even occured to me!...I
did as you said and it the problem seems to come from the inner
components (tables, divs...) because when I writea text at the
beginning of the partial page it shows correctly (without extra
spaces), not the render partial. trying to figure out what's going on
as css files don't seem to be in cause.
Every browser has its own (and different from each other) default
values for padding, margin, etc, for all elements (and for cell
spacing, borders and the rest for tables). Are you using a "reset" CSS
stylesheet to set everything to a common, blank baseline? If not, it
will get rid of a large majority of "cross browser" display issues.
And if white-space is still an issue don't forget about the "-" before
closing Ruby tags to suppress it.
Ok, I checked the doc but I don't fully understand:
- First what is the "-" you was talking about? I can't see any
reference to this
- Second about this:
"If you absolutely must write from within a function use concat.
suppress leading and trailing whitespace, including the trailing
newline, and can be used interchangeably with ."
Does it means I have to use functions to display my contents? I don't
get it...
Ok, I checked the doc but I don't fully understand:
- First what is the "-" you was talking about? I can't see any
reference to this
The first line about ERb says "You trigger ERb by using embeddings
such as <% %>, <% -%>, and <%= %>"
- Second about this:
"If you absolutely must write from within a function use concat.
suppress leading and trailing whitespace, including the trailing
newline, and can be used interchangeably with ."
So you did see it - the "suppress leading and trailing whitespace"
line that you quote part of (which probably due to HTML emails has
gotten fubared) is talking about <%- and -%>.
Does it means I have to use functions to display my contents? I don't
get it...
No. It says "if" - some people insist on doing smelly things - like
rendering output while they're in functions - and *if* someone insists
on doing that, it's better to use "concat" than to use ERb tags. But
it's better yet to *not* output from functions at all.
If you have a partial that does this:
<% if true %>
The outcome of the statement is <%= "true" %>
<% end %>
...if you look in the source, you'll see some extra whitespace. If you
care about getting rid of it at all (for the most part, I don't), you
could do this instead:
<%- if true -%>
The outcome of the statement is <%= "true" -%>
<%- end -%>
... or someone who spends more time fiddling with the rendering of
Rails apps than I do will probably tell you that an *even better*
solution is to use something like HAML. All these options are choices
for you (since you were raising the issue of white-space) - nothing is
set in stone.
Thank you very much, I checked the link with FF and see all the
information you're talking about (for some reason IE wouldn't display
the tags). I will try this right now!
Ok, no luck here, I added "-" to the main page but still seeing
strange spaces. The weirdest thing is that in the generated html code
there is no html tag corresponding to those spaces...But still, my
tables and divs have a top white space I can't explain.
Ok, no luck here, I added "-" to the main page but still seeing
strange spaces. The weirdest thing is that in the generated html code
there is no html tag corresponding to those spaces...But still, my
tables and divs have a top white space I can't explain.
Please don't top post, it makes it difficult to follow the thread. Thanks.
If you install firebug in firefox you can click on various sections of
the page and get it to show you the css styles applicable to that
element, and where that style has come from. This may give you a
clue.
Using <%- -%> wouldn't solve this, since it suppresses white space in
the source HTML, not on the page.
I can paste the exact same text from my partial into my view and the
page renders fine. The moment I go to the partial, even though the
source HTML looks identical, I have additional white space on top.
Are you saying that the html, viewed via View > Page Source or similar
in your browser is identical in the two cases, but it shows
differently in the browser? I don't think this is possible, all the
browser can see is the html (and scripts and css which we assume are
identical) so it cannot tell whether you have used a partial or not.
I suggest that you copy the complete page html in the two cases and
paste it into two files. Then compare the files with a file
comparison utility. I am sure you will see a difference.
Are you saying that the html, viewed via View > Page Source or similar
in your browser is identical in the two cases, but it shows
differently in the browser? I don't think this is possible, all the
browser can see is the html (and scripts and css which we assume are
identical) so it cannot tell whether you have used a partial or not.
I suggest that you copy the complete page html in the two cases and
paste it into two files. Then compare the files with a file
comparison utility. I am sure you will see a difference.
Yes, this is what I'm saying. The source html is identical.
Comparing the two source files finds no differences, even though there
is clearly extra space on the page when using a partial. Is Rails
somehow interpreting the .css differently? I can't figure it
out...it's making for some ugly, non-DRY code on my views, though.
Are you saying that the html, viewed via View > Page Source or similar
in your browser is identical in the two cases, but it shows
differently in the browser? I don't think this is possible, all the
browser can see is the html (and scripts and css which we assume are
identical) so it cannot tell whether you have used a partial or not.
I suggest that you copy the complete page html in the two cases and
paste it into two files. Then compare the files with a file
comparison utility. I am sure you will see a difference.
Yes, this is what I'm saying. The source html is identical.
Comparing the two source files finds no differences,
Wait. You said "source files". That is not what we are asking.
We are asking about the *generated HTML*, as seen in the browser's View
Source, not the Ruby source files.
exact same poltergeist for me on rails 3.0.1 and ruby 1.9.2. It adds
some visible space in browser but completely invisible in the
generated HTML.
it seems to be when the partial starts by a tag (like "<form ...>").
It's not a space but a linebreak. If partial starts by basic simple
text it's fine.
I checked my ruby source files encoding and it's plain good utf8.
The generated html may look exactly the same using 'source>view' in
both cases but i'm wondering if there might be some fancy digits
making this linebreak.
If the html (and javascript and css) are the same then it must render
the same, that is all the browser has to go on. Copy and paste the
html into a text file for each case and then do a file compare. Also
if you want to see where the extra space is coming from use firebug in
firefox and you can see which div or whatever the space is in and how
the area is styled.
I note that the OP was not heard from again after he was asked to
check the generated html in this way (with the request re-inforced by
Marnen as it appeared he may not have understood that it was the html
that was to be compared).
the fact that it adds a space (seen as linebreak) is because it's seen
by browser as something to print, so if your template starts by <h1>
or <form...> it's by default printed on next line.
So even if it's no css issue, css can correct it if you define
"display:inline;" for your <h1>, <form>, etc...
Still, why this digit appears is a mystery and my guess would be that
either:
-server (in my case: WebRick) outputs some tiny bits of crap when
mixing views
-my komodo editor added some stuff at the beggining of my ruby files
but i can't see anything special when opening my ruby code with
radrails.
Well I have to apologise for suggesting that if the html looked the
same then it would render the same. I had not allowed for
non-displaying characters. I wonder whether you are on developing on
windows? I seem to remember a problem with <%- -%> that the -
removed the LF but not the CR in files with CRLF line endings.
Yep, Windows. When i print special chars in Komodo, i see LF ending
each line, but no CR. I'm really not at ease with those file format
issues, can't be really helpful on that, sorry
