Rails 3 - Ideal way to set title of pages

Question

Whats the proper way to set the page title in rails 3. Currently I'm doing the following:

app/views/layouts/application.html:

<head>
  <title><%= render_title %></title>
  <%= csrf_meta_tag %>

app/helpers/application_helper.rb:

def render_title
  return @title if defined?(@title)
  "Generic Page Title"
end

app/controllers/some_controller.rb:

def show
  @title = "some custom page title"
end

Is there another/better way of doing the above?

possible duplicate of [How do I change the title of a page in rails?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/185965/how-do-i-change-the-title-of-a-page-in-rails) — Kevin, Jun 04 '14 at 15:50

score 132 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 24 '22 at 01:21

132

you could a simple helper:

def title(page_title)
  content_for :title, page_title.to_s
end

use it in your layout:

<title><%= yield(:title) %></title>

then call it from your templates:

<% title "Your custom title" %>

edited Dec 24 '22 at 01:21

starball

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answered Jun 22 '10 at 10:04

Andrea Pavoni

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Very elegant ;) But probably needs to change helper: `content_for :title, page_title.to_s` – lks128 Feb 22 '12 at 17:14
4

I edited the answer to reflect Andrew's suggestion (Andrea's solution would not work in rails 3) – kikito Jun 05 '12 at 13:26
The problem is this answer is wrong. Unless there's a magician in here. For title to be set using this helper method `title` must be called before <%= yield(:title) %>, and since the latter is mostly in layout, this will not work. People have problem understanding this answer: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17770419/unable-to-create-a-helper-in-rails – Mike Szyndel Jul 21 '13 at 09:10
1

@MichaelSzyndel What you are saying is not true. Rails traditionally renders templates first, then the layout. This changes a bit with the introduction of streaming, but even when streaming is enabled, this would still *work*, though using the new `provide` over `content_for` would be better. – numbers1311407 Dec 05 '13 at 06:03
I've found that (with a little modification) this is also a good way to set `ref="prev"`, `"next"`, and `"canonical"` header tags. – user1618143 Feb 05 '14 at 15:24
1

I guess this is still true for Rails 4, right? If yes, would be nice to note this somewhere in the answer so that people do not wonder whether or not they should continue searching if their Rails version is 4+ – mzrnsh Jan 03 '16 at 16:57
I think sanitize method will be better in case of you need apostrophes in title. Otherwise it will encode as html chars. `<%= sanitize yield(:title) %>` – Canbey Bilgili Nov 23 '16 at 09:12

score 52 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 10 '16 at 15:34

52

There's no need to create any extra function/helper. You should have a look to the documentation.

In the application layout

<% if content_for?(:title) %>
  <%= content_for(:title) %>
<% else %>
  <title>Default title</title>
<% end %>

In the specific layout

<% content_for :title do %>
  <title>Custom title</title>
<% end %>

edited Nov 10 '16 at 15:34

Alexander Suraphel

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answered Oct 30 '11 at 21:36

griable

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Jits · Answer 3 · 2011-04-26T08:21:09.223

41

I found that apeacox's solution didn't work for me (in Rails 3.0.3).

Instead I did...

In application_helper.rb:

def title(page_title, options={})
  content_for(:title, page_title.to_s)
  return content_tag(:h1, page_title, options)
end

In the layout:

<title><%= content_for(:title) %></title>

In the view:

<% title "Page Title Only" %>

OR:

<%= title "Page Title and Heading Too" %>

Note, this also allows us to check for the presence of a title and set a default title in cases where the view hasn't specified one.

In the layout we can do something like:

<title><%= content_for?(:title) ? content_for(:title) : 'This is a default title' %></title>

edited Apr 26 '11 at 08:21

answered Jan 05 '11 at 02:39

Jits

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`content_for?(:title) || 'This is a default title'` is shorter. – mjnissim Aug 03 '13 at 10:08
2

I think what you want in the layout is: <%= content_for?(:title) ? yield(:title) : 'This is a default title' %> – Jason Heiss Jan 23 '14 at 17:19
1

@mjnissim That would return "true" if there is set a value for title. – Kasper Grubbe Jul 18 '14 at 10:23

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 04 '14 at 12:41

This is my preferred way of doing it:

application_helper.rb

module ApplicationHelper
  def title(*parts)
    content_for(:title) { (parts << t(:site_name)).join(' - ') } unless parts.empty?
  end
end

views/layouts/application.html.erb

<title>
  <%= content_for?(:title) ? yield(:title) : t(:site_name) %>
</title>

config/locales/en.yml

en:
  site_name: "My Website"

This has the nice advantage to always falling back to the site name in your locales, which can be translated on a per-language basis.

Then, on every other page (eg. on the About page) you can simply put:

views/home/about.html.erb

<% title 'About' %>

The resulting title for that page will be:

About - My Website

Simples :)

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 01 '10 at 11:42

@akfalcon - I use a similar strategy, but without the helper.. I just set the default @title in the application controller and then use, <%=@title%> in my layout. If I want to override the title, I set it again in the controller action as you do. No magic involved, but it works just fine. I do the same for the meta description & keywords.

I am actually thinking about moving it to the database so an admin could change the titles,etc without having to update the Rails code. You could create a PageTitle model with content, action, and controller. Then create a helper that finds the PageTitle for the controller/action that you are currently rendering (using controller_name and action_name variables). If no match is found, then return the default.

@apeacox - is there a benefit of setting the title in the template? I would think it would be better to place it in the controller as the title relates directly to the action being called.

It's not a good practice to set a title inside a controller because the former is about View and the latter is about business logic. For example, having a 'blog' controller, it's normal to set a title according to the post.title and there's no reason to make this in controller, but you make it in template or layout file — Andrea Pavoni, Oct 14 '10 at 08:06

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 12 '15 at 16:02

I prefer this:

module ApplicationHelper
  def title(*page_title)
    if Array(page_title).size.zero?
      content_for?(:title) ? content_for(:title) : t(:site_name)
    else
      content_for :title, (Array(page_title) << t(:site_name)).join(' - ')
    end
  end
end

If title is called without arguments, it returns the current value of title or the default which in this example will be "Example".

It title is called with arguments, it sets it to the passed value.

# layouts/application.html.erb
<title><%= title %></title>

# views/index.html.erb
<% title("Home") %>

# config/locales/en.yml
en:
  site_name: "Example"

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 03 '13 at 14:19

0

You can also check this railscast. I think it will be very useful and give you basic start.

NOTE: In case you want more dynamic pages with pjax

answered Jan 03 '13 at 14:19

Dobromir Minchev

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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 08 '15 at 21:54

I have a somewhat more complicated solution. I want to manage all of my titles in my locale files. I also want to include meaningful titles for show and edit pages such that the name of the resource is included in the page title. Finally, I want to include the application name in every page title e.g. Editing user Gustav - MyApp.

To accomplish this I create a helper in application_helper.rb which does most of the heavy lifting. This tries to get a name for the given action from the locale file, a name for the assigned resource if there is one and combines these with the app name.

# Attempt to build the best possible page title.
# If there is an action specific key, use that (e.g. users.index).
# If there is a name for the object, use that (in show and edit views).
# Worst case, just use the app name
def page_title
  app_name = t :app_name
  action = t("titles.#{controller_name}.#{action_name}", default: '')
  action += " #{object_name}" if object_name.present?
  action += " - " if action.present?
  "#{action} #{app_name}"
end

# attempt to get a usable name from the assigned resource
# will only work on pages with singular resources (show, edit etc)
def object_name
  assigns[controller_name.singularize].name rescue nil
end

You will need to add action specific texts in your locale files in the following form:

# en.yml 
titles:
  users:
    index: 'Users'
    edit: 'Editing'

And if you want to use meaningful resource names in your singular views you may need to add a couple of proxy methods, e.g.

# User.rb
def name
  username
end

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Mar 31 '15 at 07:17

0

I thought it will be good:

<title>
    <% if @title %>
      <%= @title %>
    <% else %>
      Your title
    <% end %>
</title>

And give a value to @title in your controller, or the title will be Your title

answered Mar 31 '15 at 07:17

Randy

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2

Simplified: <%= @title or 'Title' %> – WhyEnBe Aug 06 '15 at 15:34

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered May 24 '16 at 04:26

0

My answer is more simple:

locales/any_archive.yml:

pt-BR:
  delivery_contents:
    title: 'Conteúdos de Entregas'

  groups:
    title: 'Grupos'

And inside of application.html.slim:

title
  = "App Name: #{t("#{controller_name.underscore}.title")}"

answered May 24 '16 at 04:26

Bruno Casali

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2
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score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Nov 14 '16 at 22:02

There's a simple way to manipulate layout variables (title, description, etc.):

# app/views/application.html.erb
<title>
  <%= content_for :title || 'App default title' %>
</title>

# app/views/posts/index.html.erb
<%= content_for :title, 'List of posts' %>

And other pages will have App default title value for their titles

tomios · Answer 12 · 2017-05-01T18:14:11.653

0

In application layout:

# app/views/layouts/application.html.erb

<title><%= (yield :title) || 'General title' %></title>

then in each view where you want a specific title:

<% content_for :title, 'Specific title' %>

edited May 01 '17 at 18:14

answered Apr 14 '17 at 15:24

tomios

31
4

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Jun 01 '17 at 04:27

There are already some good answers, but I'll add my simple approach. Add this to layouts/application.html

- if content_for?(:title)
  -title = "My site | #{content_for(:title)}"
-else
  -title = "My site | #{controller_name.titleize}"

You automagically get a nice names on all your views like "My site | Posts" -- or whatever the controller happens to be.

Of course, you can optionally set a title on a view by adding:

- content_for(:title, 'About')

and get a title like "My site | About".

Rails 3 - Ideal way to set title of pages

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