How to implement breadcrumbs functionality in Ruby on Rails app?

Breadcrumbs are graphical control element used as navigational aid in user interfaces. Today I am going to explain how it can be implemented in Ruby on Rails in simple steps as follows:

Step 1: Create a sample app using scaffold

Step 2: Add"breadcrumbs_on_rails" gem to the Gemfile and install it.

Step 3: Create a home.html.erb in articles for home page and route for it.

--> app/views/articles/home.html.erb

Welcome

This is the home page of Sample Article

<%= link_to "Articles", articles_path%>

--> config/routes.rb

root 'articles#home'

Step 4: Add breadcrumb for home page.

In Articles Controller create method “add_breadcrum” to set the braedcrumb for home path like this:

--> app/controllers/articles_controller.rb

defadd_breadcrum

add_breadcrumb "Home".html_safe

end

For every view page set home page as the first breadcrumb in articles controller by the default using:

before_action :add_breadcrum

Step 5: Add breadcrumb for other pages of article like index, create, edit and show in articles controller by adding the line for breadcrumb as “add_breadcrumb ...........”.

--> app/controllers/articles_controller.rb

def index

@articles = Article.all

add_breadcrumb "Index".html_safe

end

def new

@article = Article.new

add_breadcrumb "Index".html_safe

add_breadcrumb "Create".html_safe

end

def edit

add_breadcrumb "Index".html_safe

add_breadcrumb "Edit: #{@article.title}".html_safe

end

def show

add_breadcrumb "Index".html_safe

add_breadcrumb "Show: #{@article.title}".html_safe

end

Step 6: To add seprator “/” and show breadcrumb to view page we will render the breadcrumb

<%= render_breadcrumbs :separator => "&nbsp/&nbsp" %>

Written by,

Mayuri Kanholkar

Source: http://www.cryptextechnologies.com/blogs/how-to-implement-breadcrumb-functionality-in-ruby-on-rails-app