Rails 5 rendering from outside a controller with ApplicationController.renderer.render doesn't set variables on self

Question

I'm using the Rails 5 ApplicationController.renderer.render method to render from within a model. I need to pass some variables to my layout which I have done using the locals option; this variable is then available in the layout if accessed directly, but not via self.

Here is how I have setup my render

html_string = ApplicationController.renderer.render(
  file: "/#{template_path}/base/show",
  :formats => [:pdf,:html],
  locals: {
    :@routing_form => self,
    :controller_name => controller_name,
    :action_name => action_name,
    :current_user => current_user
  },
  :layout  => '/layouts/application'
)

Then within the layout I want to do something like this.

<div id="foo" class="<%= self.action_name %>">

I was able to get this working by dropping self in this particular instance

<div id="foo" class="<%= action_name %>">

but now my concern is how would I set a variable so that it would work correctly with self? Previously I was using the render_anywhere gem and this was handled using rendering_controller.var = "value"

Answer 1

Since self is a keyword in Ruby, you cannot use it as a method call in your layout template, so you should use another name to pass with the locals.

You can pass something like my_object: self and it will work fine.

If you want to name the key with a @, you should put it inside a string '@my_object': self and calls it normally in your template: <%= @my_object.action_name%>