Adding a helper method with a gem

Question

I have found a lot of information about adding form helper methods (see one of my other questions), but I can't find anything about adding helper methods as if they were defined in application_helper.rb.

I've tried copying application_helper.rb from a rails app into the gem but that didn't work.

I've also tried:

class ActionView::Helpers

..but that produces an error.

Answer 1

Create a module somewhere for your helper methods:

module MyHelper
  def mymethod
  end
end

Mix it into ActionView::Base (such as in init.rb or lib/your_lib_file.rb)

ActionView::Base.send :include, MyHelper

Answer 2

To extends @sdbrown's excellent Answer to Rails 4:

# in in lib/my_rails_engine.rb
require 'my_rails_engine/my_rails_helper.rb'
require 'my_rails_engine/engine.rb'

And

# in lib/my_rails_engine/engine.rb
module MyRailsEngine
  class Engine < ::Rails::Engine
    initializer "my_rails_engine.engine" do |app|
      ActionView::Base.send :include, MyRailsEngine::MyRailsHelpers
    end
  end
end

and finally

# in lib/my_rails_engine/my_rails_helper.rb 
module MyRailsEngine
  module MyRailsHelpers
    # ...
    def your_helper_here
    end
  end
end