# The right way to override render method

**URL:** <https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/the-right-way-to-override-render-method/84765>\
**Category:** rubyonrails-core\
**Tags:** actioncontroller\
**Created:** [January 31, 2024, 4:33pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/the-right-way-to-override-render-method/84765 "2024-01-31T16:33:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![javier.valencia](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/rubyonrails/user_avatar/discuss.rubyonrails.org/javier.valencia/32/4915_2.png) [@javier.valencia](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/javier.valencia)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 4:33pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/the-right-way-to-override-render-method/84765/1 "2024-01-31T16:33:06Z")

</div>

Hi there, I’m writing a **controller concern** for HTMX.

I need to override **ActionController::Base.render** method, but I don’t know if this it’s the right way:

```ruby
  def render(*args, &block)
    options = _normalize_render(*args, &block)

    # Set flash now
    if (_flash_now = options.delete :flash_now)
      _flash_now.each do |type, text|
        flash.now[type] = text
      end
    end

    # Set headers
    if (_headers = options.delete :headers)
      _headers.each do |header, value|
        response.headers[header] = value
      end
    end

    # Avoid layout when HTMX Request
    options[:layout] = false if hx_request?

    super options, &block
  end

```

I search on internet and I can’t find anything about this. There are a best way to implement this?

**Gracias|Thanks**.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brenogazzola](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/rubyonrails/user_avatar/discuss.rubyonrails.org/brenogazzola/32/3856_2.png) [@brenogazzola](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/brenogazzola)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 5:39pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/the-right-way-to-override-render-method/84765/2 "2024-01-31T17:39:27Z")

</div>

Instead of overriding `render`, it might be better to use formats and set things other ways. Your best bet is to take a look at the `turbo_rails` gem, since it also checks if requests are coming from turbo to change how rendering will be performed.

For example, here is how it handles the special `layout` for frames. Just rename what you need and replace `turbo_frame_request?` with `hx_request?`

```ruby
module HtmxRequest
  extend ActiveSupport::Concern

  included do
    layout -> { "turbo_rails/frame" if turbo_frame_request? }
    etag { :frame if turbo_frame_request? }

    helper_method :turbo_frame_request_id
  end

  private
    def turbo_frame_request?
      turbo_frame_request_id.present?
    end

    def turbo_frame_request_id
      request.headers["Turbo-Frame"]
    end
end

```

And this is how it handles both a normal response and a stream response.

```ruby
def destroy
  @user.destroy!

  respond_to do |format|
    format.turbo_stream { render turbo_stream: turbo_stream.remove(@user) }
    format.html { redirect_to users_url, notice: "User removed" }
  end
end

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![schmijos](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/rubyonrails/user_avatar/discuss.rubyonrails.org/schmijos/32/1623_2.png) [@schmijos](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/schmijos)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 7:52pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/the-right-way-to-override-render-method/84765/3 "2024-12-16T19:52:08Z")

</div>

I’d like to wrap all ActionView render calls in a custom web component. This may seem like a bad idea, but still: How would you do this? Your solution doesn’t apply well to this because it mainly extends behaviour.

I tried to naively patch the render method. This gets me weird behaviour like that when I change the module code, the contents show multiple times. It seems like a caching issue. But I’m running this all in development.

```rb
# lib/render_patch.rb
module RenderPatch
  def render(*args, &block)
    puts "render called with #{args.inspect}"
    if args.first.is_a?(String)
      rendered_content = super(*args, &block)
      <<~HTML.html_safe
        <pre>--- #{args.first} ---
        #{args.second.map { "#{_1}: #{_2.class}" }.join("\n")}
        </pre>
        <rasmic-debuggable>
          #{rendered_content}
        </rasmic-debuggable>
      HTML

    else
      super(*args, &block)
    end
  end
end

# config/initializers/gui_patch.rb
Rails.application.config.to_prepare do
  ActionView::Base.prepend(RenderPatch)
end

```

So what’s the right way to override the render method? For `ActionView` in my case.