#About

This is just a stupid little snippet of code that allows you to add button elements to your Rails application without having to either manually code the HTML, or do weird content_tag trickery.

You can use it just like you do with link_to:

<%= button_tag 'Sign In!', :type => 'submit', :class => 'sign_in' %>
#=> <button type="submit" class="sign_in">Sign In!</button>

It is also smart enough to take a block:

<% button_tag :class => 'button' do %>
  <span><span>Button in a Block</span></span>
<% end %>
#=> <button class="button"><span><span>Button in a Block</span></span></button>

Testing

The testing support for this is sketchy ... the tests will run (and pass), but until I figure out a way to not include all of the Rails methods in the test suite, it's going to be a little sketchy.

You can drop the following specs in to your application if you're using RSpec, and that can get you started with feeling good that the code will work.

describe "button_tag" do
  it "should render a button" do
    template = <<-EOF
      <%= button_tag('Button Tag', :type => 'submit') %>
    EOF
    eval_erb(template).should have_tag('button[type="submit"]', :content => 'Button Tag')
  end
  it "should render a button when given a block" do
    template = <<-EOF
      <% button_tag :type => 'submit' do %>
        <span>Button Tag</span>
      <% end %>
    EOF
    eval_erb(template).should have_tag('button[type="submit"]')
    eval_erb(template).should have_tag('span', :content => 'Button Tag')
  end
end

Patches are, of course, more than welcome.

Assumptions

You're using Rails. Likely won't work, otherwise.

Also, I've only tested this against 2.3.5. Any other versions are untested, though it's based on existing Rails code that's been in place for a while, so chances are good that it'll work, but consider yourself warned.

Prior Art

This is largely based off of the link_to the method in Rails, and I've just modified it to be more relevant to the existence of buttons. So, credit is due primarily to the author(s) of that particular method.

Licensing

Use and re-use as much as you want.