Generates javascript file that defines all Rails named routes as javascript helpers

Your Rails Gemfile:

gem "js-routes"

Your application initializer, like config/initializers/jsroutes.rb:

JsRoutes.generate!({
 #options
})

Available options:

• :file - the file to generate the routes. Default:
  • #{Rails.root}/app/assets/javascripts/routes.js for Rails >= 3.1
  • #{Rails.root}/public/javascripts/routes.js for Rails < 3.1
• :default_format - Format to append to urls. Default: blank
• :exclude - Array of regexps to exclude from js routes. Default: []
  • Note that regexp applied to named route not to URL
• :include - Array of regexps to include in js routes. Default: []
  • Note that regexp applied to named route not to URL
• :namespace - global object used to access routes. Default: Routes
  • Supports nested namespace like MyProject.routes
• :prefix - String representing a url path to prepend to all paths
  • Should be specified via :prefix => "/myprefix"

This is how you can generate separated routes files for different parts of application:

JsRoutes.generate!(:file => "#{path}/app_routes.js", :namespace => "AppRoutes", :exclude => /^admin_/, :default_format => "json")
JsRoutes.generate!(:file => "#{path}/adm_routes.js", :namespace => "AdmRoutes", :include => /^admin_/, :default_format => "json")

In order to generate routes to string and manipulate them yourself use: Like:

routes_js = JsRoutes.generate(options)

Configuration above will create a nice javascript file with Routes object that has all the rails routes available:

Routes.users_path() // => "/users"
Routes.user_path(1) // => "/users/1"
Routes.user_path(1, {format: 'json'}) // => "/users/1.json"
Routes.new_user_project_path(1, {format: 'json'}) // => "/users/1/projects/new.json"
Routes.user_project_path(1,2, {q: 'hello', custom: true}) // => "/users/1/projects/2?q=hello&custom=true"

Using serialized object as route function arguments:

var google = {id: 1, name: "Google"};
Routes.company_path(google) // => "/companies/1"
var google = {id: 1, name: "Google", to_param: "google"};
Routes.company_path(google) // => "/companies/google"

In order to make routes helpers available globally:

jQuery.extend(window, Routes)

js-routes itself do not have security holes. It makes URLs without access protection more reachable by potential attacker. In order to prevent this use :exclude option for sensitive urls like /admin_/

There are some alternatives available. Most of them has only basic feature and don't reach the level of quality I accept. Advantages of this one are:

• Rails3 support
• Rich options set
• Support Rails #to_param convention for seo optimized paths
• Well tested