Turbo Broadcastables & Helpers

[gabriel-curtino]

Hi!

Before anything, thanks for your work! I'm trying phlex-rails for first time and it looks really interesting.

I'm using Phlex in a rails app and currently facing an issue when trying to broadcast from the model (https://www.rubydoc.info/gems/turbo-rails/Turbo/Broadcastable)

Broadcasting the html works, but it fails when the component use helpers:

broadcast_append_to(channel_id, html: Components::ChatMessage.new(self).call, target: "thread_#{thread.id}_messages")

# undefined method `class_names' for nil (NoMethodError)

I'm using a workaround to render the component as if it would be in a controller context:

def render_component(component)
  ApplicationController.render(component, layout: false)
end

broadcast_append_to(channel_id, html: render_component(Components::ChatMessage.new(self)), target: "thread_#{thread.id}_messages")

Is there a proper way to do it? Couldn't find an answer in the docs or the discussions.

EDIT: using the v2 main branch

[joeldrapper]

I haven't tried it, but I wonder if you could use render_to_string. https://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/AbstractController/Rendering.html#method-i-render_to_string

[gabriel-curtino]

Testing in the console:

ApplicationController.render_to_string(Components::ChatMessage.new(Message.first))

# nil

ApplicationController.render_to_string(Components::ChatMessage.new(Message.first).call)

# `view_template': undefined method `class_names' for nil (NoMethodError)

The following alternatives work:

Components::ChatMessage.new(Message.first).render_in(ActionController::Base.new.view_context)

ApplicationController.new.view_context.render(Components::ChatMessage.new(Message.first))

I got the ideas from ViewComponents here: ViewComponent/view_component#1106

[fagnerpereira]

try to use the :renderable following the example provided by the turbo rails doc:

broadcast_replace_to(user, :message, target: "message", renderable: MessageComponent.new)

PS: I just implemented here and it worked perfectly well.

[joeldrapper]

It would work if the component was serialisable for ActiveJob. Let’s see if we can get that working.

[gabriel-curtino]

That's correct, but does it worth to serialize the whole object? I guess it might only if the component does heavy operations and the rendering takes a while, otherwise seems that pass the html to the job might be better.

Anyway, it will be nice to have that possibility and explore how convenient it is.

[fagnerpereira]

@joeldrapper there is a pr opened to support that, but it seens they are not advancing with that hotwired/turbo-rails#501

[gabriel-curtino]

@joeldrapper there is a pr opened to support that, but it seens they are not advancing with that hotwired/turbo-rails#501

That PR renders the element synchronously and then pass the html to the job. The only benefit is that saves you from doing it yourself, but can be misleading: you might think the rendering will be done asynchronously...

[joeldrapper]

I think there's a way we could allow the component itself to be serialized.