How do I call a number_helper in my model?

Question

I am using best_in_place gem, and to cut a long story short I can't call this particular helper in my view, because I have to call a custom method in my model to customize how I want the output to look.

This is the call in my view:

<td><%= best_in_place firm, :size, :type => :input, :nil => "Click to add Firm Size", :display_as => :in_millions %></td>

This is the method in my Firm model:

def in_millions
    "$#{self.size}M"
end

The numbers entered by the user won't be 100000000, but rather 100. So I want to take that 100 and have it just read $100M. That's what my helper does.

But, for those numbers that are like 12345, I want the output to look like this: $12,345M.

The easiest way I can think is just to add number_with_delimiter(self.size) and keep the $ and M, but I can't access that helper method from my model.

Thoughts?

Answer 1

You can include helpers in your model by including ActionView::Helpers:

# in model
include ActionView::Helpers

I wonder, though, if it wouldn't make better sense to keep the presentation on the presentation side. You could just wrap up the extra logic in an alternative helper instead:

# in helper
def firm_size_in_millions(firm)
  size = number_with_delimiter(firm.size)
  "$#{size}M"
end

<!-- in view -->
<%= firm_size_in_millions(@firm) %>