Breadcrumbs in Ruby on Rails

Question

I'm slightly insecure about my breadcrumb solution. Names and links are defined in each controller action:

<a href="http://localhost:3000/">Home</a>
<% if defined? @l1_link %>
  > <a href="<%= @l1_link%>"><%= @l1_name %></a>
  <% if defined? @l2_link %>
    > <a href="<%= @l2_link%>"><%= @l2_name %></a>
  <% end %>
<% end %>

This way I can use:

@l1_link = user_path()

Question: As I am not that smart - could this kind of system lead to desaster somewhere down the road? Is this (grossly) inefficient?

Answer 1

This is mostly a matter of opinion, but anyway:

1. I would not want that much logic in a view. We've probably all done it, but it gets messy quickly.
2. The code is not safe against future changes that affect the depth of the tree.
3. Instead of linked variables *_name and *_link, I'd suggest using proper objects anyway, with some link_to functionality.

You might find Episode 162 of Railscasts of interest for a nice solution that gets by with

<% for page in @page.ancestors.reverse %>
  <%= link_to h(page.name), page %> &gt;
<% end %>