This plugin fixes the problem of how to organize the parts of your app that are re-used like blocks across pages, like those in side-bars and top-bars. It allows you to create render-points where content can be inserted in views.
In short it allows one to set body_parts (variables that can be yielded in views) from controllers. Also since Rails components are notoriously slow, this is a nice alternative.
After installing the plugin you can declare body parts in your controllers (most often only in controllers/application.rb) with: body_parts :top, :sidebar Then you can fill them up in the same, or in inheriting controllers by passing method syms to body-name_body, just like Rails filters: top_body :navigation_bar The return value of these methods will be added to the body.
In the view you can display the body with <= yield :sidebar_body %> resp.
<= yield :top_body %>. As you can see Body Builder supports multiple, user-defined bodies. This contrary to the Simple Sidebar plugin.
See the full Body Builder docs for code examples and installation instructions: BuddyNS - Fastest-to-synchronize secondary DNS service
Body Builder is under the Affero GPL, and developed by the LogiLogi Foundation (http://foundation.logilogi.org)
greetings,
Wybo Wiersma