1) object – your model object used in the collection
2) method – a valid model attribute or method
3) collection – a collection of active record model objects
4) option_value – value being set from the model for the <option value=”option_value”> html element
5) option_name – what is displayed for the user e.g., <option> option_name <
6) option – general options
7) options for the select html element

# helper and arguments...
# collection_select( model, id, collection, option_value, option_name, options, html_options)

<%= collection_select("states", "state_id",
  State.participating,
  "abbreviation", "name",
   {:selected=> get_current_state_or_nil },
   {:onchange=>"document.location='/states/'+this.value"}
) %>

#which will produce something like...
<select id="state_id" name="state[id]" onchange="document.location='/states/'+this.value">
<option value="AL">Alabama</option>
<option value="AK">Alaska</option>
<option value="AZ">Arizona</option>
<option value="AR">Arkansas</option>
</select>

<% help do %>
  here is my help text...
<% end %>

which will render HTML similar to this…

<a href='#' 'class='help' id='help_link_123456' onclick='some_func_to_toggle_state'>+/- help</a>
<div id="help_123456">
  here is my help text...
</div>

In order to accomplish this you need to create a helper method. Assigning a unique id, just a random number, will help avoid collisions with the state of the toggled div if you use this more than once per page. Placing other HTML helper methods inside the concat() method allows multiple tags as well as rendering the block passed to the function in the appropriate place. It looks a little unwieldy, but works nicely.

# app/helpers/application_helper.rb
module ApplicationHelper
  def help(&block)
    uniqid = rand; concat( link_to_function("+/- help") do |page|
      page["help_#{uniqid}"].toggle
      page.visual_effect :highlight, "help_#{uniqid}"
    end + content_tag(:div,:class=>"help",:id=>"help_#{uniqid}", :style=>"display:none") do
      yield
    end )
  end
end

# RAILS_ROOT/config/initializers/datetime.rb
Time::DATE_FORMATS[:date] = "%a %b %d, %Y"
Time::DATE_FORMATS[:time] = "%I:%M%p"
# ...

Next I set up a helper function which will string together the :date and :time formats and remove the leading zero in the hour with the .gsub method on the string.

  # RAILS_ROOT/app/helpers/application_helper.rb
  def fulltime(created_at)
    created_at.to_s(:date)+" "+created_at.to_s(:time).gsub(/^0/,'').downcase
  end

In a view I’ll just pass the timestamp to the fulltime function

fulltime(@post.created_at)

This post was created about <%= time_ago_in_words @post.created_at %> ago

#in lib/my_module_name.rb
module MyModuleName
  def my_method_for_views
     #logic...
  end
  def self.included(base)
    base.send :helper_method, :my_method_for_views if base.respond_to? :helper_method
  end
end

More detailed information on the TinyMCE specifics can be found at this site <a href=”http://www.crossedconnections.org/w/?p=88″>

In Rails, there is a nifty helper function called “observe_field” that will generate Javascript which listens for changes on form fields. However, because TinyMCE only updates the field after the form is submitted the contents of the textarea are not updated when you type in it. Therefore, your observe_field function is listening but doesn’t see anything new. The iFrame is a kind of buffer that will write to the textarea later.

A simple solution to this problem is to call the function that writes to the textarea. This will update the textarea and the observer_field function will notice the changes. You can use prototype “PeriodicalExecuter” to trigger a function that will contain the TinyMCE callback function. Below is the code.

script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"
  function triggerTinyMCE(){
    tinyMCE.triggerSave(true, true);
  }
  new PeriodicalExecuter(triggerTinyMCE, 30);
/script

<%= observe_field( :post_body,
        :frequency => 1,
        :update => :update_status,
        :url => { :action => :update_body } ) %>

However, the only problem with this approach is that you’re kind of running two functions that do the same thing. Instead it would make more sense to get rid of the observe_field function altogether and have the PeriodicalExecuter trigger a function that makes the ajax request at the same time. This would look something like

script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"
  function triggerTinyMCE(){
    tinyMCE.triggerSave(true, true);
    var content = escape($F('post_body'));
    var url = "/posts/update_body";
    var params = "post_body="+content;

    var aRequest = new Ajax.Request(url,
    {
      method: 'post',
      parameters: params,
      onSuccess: function(data){
        $("update_status").innerHTML = data.responseText;
      }
   });
}
new PeriodicalExecuter(triggerTinyMCE, 10);
/script