How do I display SVG image in Rails?

Question

I have a svg image on /app/asssets/images/symbols.svg with this as contents.

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><symbol id="icon-search" viewBox="0 0 18 18"><path fill="currentColor" d="M12.8 11.4c.9-1.2 1.4-2.7 1.4-4.3C14.2 3.2 11 0 7.1 0S0 3.2 0 7.1c0 3.9 3.2 7.1 7.1 7.1 1.6 0 3.1-.5 4.3-1.4l5.2 5.2 1.4-1.4-5.2-5.2zM2 7.1C2 4.3 4.3 2 7.1 2s5.1 2.3 5.1 5.1-2.3 5.1-5.1 5.1S2 9.9 2 7.1z"/></symbol><symbol id="icon-view-default" viewBox="0 0 18 18"><g fill="currentColor"><path d="M8 11H0V0h8v11zM18 5h-8V0h8v5zM8 18H0v-5h8v5zM18 18h-8V7h8v11z"/></g></symbol><symbol id="icon-view-alt" viewBox="0 0 18 18"><g fill="currentColor"><path d="M8 8H0V0h8v8zM18 8h-8V0h8v8zM8 18H0v-8h8v8zM18 18h-8v-8h8v8z"/></g></symbol><symbol id="icon-view-full" viewBox="0 0 18 18"><g fill="currentColor"><path d="M18 8H0V0h18v8zM18 18H0v-8h18v8z"/></g></symbol><symbol id="icon-facebook" viewBox="0 0 9 19"><path fill="currentColor" d="M6.7 3.6H9V0H6.3c-3.3.1-4 2.1-4 4.1V6H0v3.5h2.2V19h3.4V9.5h2.8L8.9 6H5.6V4.9c0-.7.4-1.3 1.1-1.3z"/></symbol><symbol id="icon-twitter" viewBox="0 0 17.9 15"><path fill="currentColor" d="M17.9 1.8c-.3.2-1.2.5-2 .6.5-.3 1.3-1.3 1.5-2.1-.5.3-1.7.8-2.3.8C14.4.5 13.5 0 12.4 0c-2 0-3.7 1.7-3.7 3.8 0 .3 0 .6.1.8-2.8-.1-6-1.5-7.8-4-1.1 2-.2 4.2 1.1 5-.4 0-1.2-.1-1.6-.4 0 1.3.6 3.1 2.9 3.7-.5.4-1.3.3-1.6.3.1 1.1 1.6 2.6 3.3 2.6-.6.7-2.6 2-5.1 1.6 1.7 1 3.7 1.6 5.8 1.6 6 0 10.6-5 10.3-11.1v-.1c.6-.4 1.3-1.1 1.8-2z"/></symbol><symbol id="icon-pinterest" viewBox="0 0 18 18"><path fill="currentColor" d="M2.3 0h13.4C17 0 18 .9 18 2.3v13.4c0 1.4-1 2.3-2.3 2.3H2.3C1 18 0 17.1 0 15.7V2.3C0 .9 1 0 2.3 0zm10.8 2c-.4 0-.8.4-.8.8v1.9c0 .4.4.8.8.8h2c.4 0 .8-.4.8-.8V2.8c.1-.4-.3-.8-.8-.8h-2zM16 7.6h-1.6c.2.5.2 1 .2 1.5 0 3-2.5 5.4-5.6 5.4-3.1 0-5.6-2.4-5.6-5.4 0-.5.1-1.1.2-1.5H2v7.6c0 .4.3.7.7.7h12.5c.4 0 .7-.3.7-.7l.1-7.6zM9 5.5C7 5.5 5.4 7 5.4 9c0 1.9 1.6 3.5 3.6 3.5s3.6-1.6 3.6-3.5c0-2-1.6-3.5-3.6-3.5z"/></symbol><symbol id="icon-tumblr" viewBox="0 0 11 19"><path fill="currentColor" d="M8.6 15.9c-1.6 0-2.3-1.3-2.3-2.2V7.8h4.1v-3h-4V.1S4.7 0 3.5 0C3.5 4.1 0 4.9 0 4.9v2.8h2.3v7C2.3 17.1 4.4 19 7 19s4-1.1 4-1.1v-3.1c0 .1-.8 1.1-2.4 1.1z"/></symbol><symbol id="icon-menu" viewBox="0 0 274.5 224.5"><g fill="currentColor"><path d="M274 53.8H.5V.5H274v53.3zM274 138.9H.5V85.6H274v53.3zM274 224H.5v-53.3H274V224z"/></g></symbol><symbol id="bar" viewBox="0 0 274.5 54.3"><path fill="currentColor" d="M274 53.8H.5V.5H274v53.3z"/></symbol><symbol id="arrow" viewBox="0 0 38 14"><path fill="currentColor" d="M31 0l-1.4 1.4L34.2 6H0v2h34.2l-4.6 4.6L31 14l7-7-7-7z"/></symbol><symbol id="refresh" viewBox="0 0 19 16"><path fill="currentColor" d="M9.4 6.2l5.9 4.4L19 4.4l-1.7-1L15.7 6c-.9-3.5-4-6-7.7-6-4.4 0-8 3.6-8 8s3.6 8 8 8c2.1 0 4.1-.8 5.6-2.3l-1.4-1.4C11.1 13.3 9.6 14 8 14c-3.3 0-6-2.7-6-6s2.7-6 6-6c3 0 5.4 2.2 5.9 5l-3.3-2.4-1.2 1.6z"/></symbol></svg>

Now on a html template which I found on the net the images are shown with :

  <svg>
      <use xlink:href="assets/img/symbols.svg#bar"></use>
    </svg>

How can I make this work on rails.

I tried :

 <use xlink:href="images/symbols.svg#bar"></use>

and the svg-inline gem

but on both I see no images on my webpage.

Can anyone help me figure out how to make this work ?

Answer 1

I've been trying different solutions for this, and ultimately landed on just putting the svg doc in an html.erb partial. Since svg is valid html, it works fine to just move it from assets to views.

<%# app/views/home/index.html.erb %>

<%= render partial: "svgs/some_svg.html.erb"

Given

app
| views
| | home
| | | index.html.erb
| | svgs
| | | some_svg.html.erb

Answer 2

Displaying SVGs (scalable vector graphics) in a Rails app

Specifically include the SVG filetype in asset compilation

production.rb 

  config.assets.precompile += %w( '.svg' )  

  # Must include to get inline SVGs to work in deploy
  config.assets.css_compressor = :sass

Create a helper to display the SVG

myhelper.rb

def show_svg(path)
  File.open("app/assets/images/#{path}", "rb") do |file|
    raw file.read
  end
end

Invoke the SVG processing helper in your view

<%= show_svg('symbols.svg') %>

---

From your question I'm not 100% clear about your implementation, but these steps should get you to the point where your SVG image is visible. Once you have the SVG visible, you can apply CSS.