Add css class to rails link_to helper

Question

I'm trying to style a rails link using css using the following code:

<%= link_to "Learn More", :controller => "menus", :action => "index", :class => "btn btn-inverse" %>

I would expect that this would create a link that looks like this:

<a href="menus/" class="btn btn-inverse">Learn More</a>

Instead, rails is rendering this -

<a href="/menus?class=btn+btn-inverse">Learn More</a>

Has anyone else had this problem / know what I'm doing wrong? I know I can avoid this problem by manually creating the anchor tag rather than using helper, but I was wondering if there was a way to pass the css class info to the helper itself. I'm using Rails 3.2.6.

Thanks!

What happens with :class => ["btn", "btn-inverse"] or :class => %w"btn btn-inverse" ? — Marlin Pierce
You could also just use menus_path as the second argument to link_to instead of specifying the controller and action. — James

MrYoshiji MrYoshiji · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-22T17:09:41

You have a syntax problem. Try this instead:

<%= link_to "Learn More", {controller: "menus", action: "index"}, class: "btn btn-inverse" %>

Some documentation for you to go further with the link_to Helper

They say:

Be careful when using the older argument style, as an extra literal hash is needed:

link_to "Articles", { :controller => "articles" }, :id => "news", :class => "article"
# => <a href="/articles" class="article" id="news">Articles</a>

Leaving the hash off gives the wrong link:

link_to "WRONG!", :controller => "articles", :id => "news", :class => "article"
# => <a href="/articles/index/news?class=article">WRONG!</a>

I recommend you to use the URL helper generated following your routes configuration. In your case:

link_to "Learn More", menus_path, :class => "btn btn-inverse"

A little reminder on the Helpers generated:

# routes.rb
resources :users

# any view/controller
users_path #=> /users
edit_user_path(user) #=> /users/:id/edit
user_path(user) #=> /users/:id  (show action)
new_user_path(user) #=> /users/new

Add css class to rails link_to helper

5 Answers