= File Based Layout

This extension allows pages served by Radiant to share a standard file-based Rails layout with Rails-generated pages. Full ERb, HAML or any other rendering engine can be used as normal in the layout, however, Radiant tags cannot currently be used in the layouts.

Tested with Radiant 0.6.7

== Installation

1. Place this extension in the RAILS_ROOT/vendor/extensions/file_based_layout directory
2. Run % rake db:migrate:extensions

== Usage

You must have a Rails layout file ready in the app/views/layouts/ directory of Radiant or an extension.

=== The Rails layout (typically .html.erb) file

There are no special requirements to the layout file. It contain anything a normal Rails app will accept.

The body page part is always rendered where it says <%= yield %> in the layout. Other page parts are rendered where they yielded by their name.

For instance, the page part "extended" are rendered where the layout says <%= yield :extended %>.

=== The Radiant Administration interface

Create a new layout from the "Layouts tab". Click the "More" link below the "Name" text-box, and select a layout file. Any contents in the "Body" text area will be ignored.

Any page that has this new Layout, or has inherited the layout, will now render using the selected Rails layout file.

== Changes made by this extension

* layout_file field added to the Layouts table
* file_based? method added to the Layout model
* SiteController's process_page method aliased to render using a file-based layout, or normal
* Render methods added to SiteController (eventually forwarding to Page's render methods), to be able to map various page parts to different content snippets in the layout
* LayoutController's new and edit method changed to supply list of layout files to the view
* Layout File drop-down list added to the Layout edit view (using shards)

== About the author

Casper Fabricius is a Danish Rails and Radiant developer living in Copenhagen.
Weblog: http://casperfabricius.com
Email: [email protected]