Static data

Accessing and storing static YAML, JSON and XML files.

Disambiguation

This documentation page is not about serving static assets or rendering static files.

• For serving static assets (images, scripts, stylesheets, fonts, etc.) view the asset pipeline documentation page.

• For rendering other static files, view the rendering static files documentation page

Description

The static directory should contain structured data in the YAML, JSON or XML formats. Other files can be stored here for the purpose of rendering them, but only files of these formats can be accessed.

Currently supported extensions are: .xml, .yaml, .yml, .json and .geojson.

The Static helper constant can be accessed from anywhere within your application. This constant acts as a link to the static directory, allowing you to access data.

Examples

• The data in a .geojson file at static/server-locations.geojson can be accessed with:

  Static.server_locations

  NOTE: The file name is automatically inflected to create a valid Ruby method name. This may lead to differences between the file name and method name as seen in this example (with the - being changed to a _).

• The data in a .json file at static/dependencies/config.json can be accessed with:

  Static.dependencies.config

  NOTE: Directory names are also inflected in the same way as file names.

• The data in a .yml file at static/locales.en.yml can be accessed with:

  Static.locales.en

Viewing defined sub-directory and file methods

The Object#methods method can be used to check for defined sub-directory and file methods for the Static helper object.

Consider the following directory structure:

static
├── hobbies
│   ├── academic
│   │   └── ruby.yml
│   └── non-academic
│       ├── games
│       │   └── chess.yml
│       └── sports
│           ├── climbing.json
│           └── golf.yml
└── main.yml

Static.methods(false) #=> [:hobbies, :main]
Static.hobbies.methods(false) #=> [:academic, :non_academic]
Static.hobbies.academic.methods(false) #=> [:ruby]
Static.hobbies.non_academic.methods(false) #=> [:games, :sports]
Static.hobbies.non_academic.games.methods(false)  #=> [:chess]
Static.hobbies.non_academic.sports.methods(false) #=> [:climbing, :golf]

Symbolizing

Data that is read from the files in the static directory is automatically converted into a hash.

Since it is Ruby convention that hash keys are symbols, all hash keys accessed through this helper will be symbolized by default (this can be changed in the core application file, however).

Examples

Consider the following .yml file:

app/static/ruby.yml

projects:
  frameworks:
    - name: 'Rails'
      repo: 'https://github.com/rails/rails'
    - name: 'Eucalypt'
      repo: 'https://github.com/eucalypt-framework/eucalypt'

If configured to symbolize the generated hash, then the data for the Rails framework can be accessed with:

Static.ruby[:projects][:frameworks].first
#=> {:name=>"Rails", :repo=>"https://github.com/rails/rails"}

If configured to not symbolize the generated hash, then the data for the Eucalypt framework can be accessed with:

Static.ruby["projects"]["frameworks"].last
#=> {"name"=>"Eucalypt", "repo"=>"https://github.com/eucalypt-framework/eucalypt"}