Rails Ruby on Rails

With the release of Rails 3 and the encouragement to use unobtrusive JavaScript, I noticed that there was something missing from Rails 3; a MVC style helper (I know, bad example) for including JavaScript sources. Currently, you have to use javascript_include_tag to include your unobtrusive JavaScript sources. However, what if only half of your controller views actually use the JavaScript source? It seems sloppy to include a large JavaScript source file when it will not be used. It also seems sloppy to include unobtrusive JavaScript in a tag within your HTML view.

I expected Rails 3 to have a feature to automatically include JavaScript sources based off the current view's controller. However, that is not the case.

So, to make unobtrusive JavaScript flow better with Rails 3, I created the javascript_include_view_js helper method. What does this method do? Well, this method (when added to your layout view) will automatically load any JavaScript sources named after the current controller. If no such JavaScript source exists, then it doesn't even create the tag. For example, lets say I have a controller called "privacy" and have some awesome unobtrusive JavaScript (that will not be use anywhere else), all I have to do is place "privacy_java.js" in public/javascripts. Assuming I placed javascript_include_view_js in my layout view, the JavaScript will be automatically referenced in the appropriate script tag.

The javascript_include_view_js helper method can also handle deep (nested, treed, whatever you want to call it) controller names. For example, I have a Customer Management System (CMS) within one of my Rails applications. The Access controller handles all login and logout procedures. The controller name is "cms/access." If I need to include any JavaScript sources, I just name it the file "cms_access_java.js" and place it in public/javascripts. javascript_include_view_js will automatically format the controller so that it can hunt for the JavaScript source file.

Please take a look and tell me what you think. Is this a good contribution, or is this helper method better as a plugin?

My rails fork can be found at: github.com/mdoza/rails under the controller_java branch.

Thanks,

Matt