There is some differents ways to have a better organization of your views in a Ruby On Rails application. Partials and helpers are the standard methods. There is also Presenters and Decorators. It can be a little bit confusing to know how and when to use it.

My organization

Every technics can have his own utility.

Helpers

Helpers are generic methods which can be use for different kind of objects. I create this kind of helpers link_to_update, big_image, styled_form, etc. Those methods create an html code with a css style or a standard text for example.

Partials

Partials are used to split a big view into smaller logic parts. I can have a partial side_menu, comment_list, header, etc.

Presenters

Presenters is for more complicated queries with two or more models. I have some partials like @page_presenter.page_in_category(ruby_category) or @user_presenter.user_following(an_article).

Decorators

Decorators should act with only one model and shouldn’t take parameters (if it’s possible). I can do something like this user.full_name, page.big_title or category.permalink. I use the gem Draper.

If I search many models, I do not access to the model class in the view. I use the draper’s function decorates_finders.

Conclusion

There may be a better solution but it works for me. If you have a better solution, please, let me know.

I have only one thing which I don’t like for presenters. I don’t like to instanciate an object in the controller and to pass it into the view. It does not respect the Sandi Metz’s rules. Every rules can be broken with a good reason…