ruby on rails 3 - Structuring coffeescript code?

Question

Under Rails 3.1, I'm trying to find out how to move a few coffeescript classes away from my controller default coffeescript file (home.js.coffee) into another file, in order to structure the whole a little bit.

Does anyone know how to "include" a coffeescript file into another?

Answer 1

What you want to do is export functionality. For instance, if you start with

class Foo
  ...

class Bar extends Foo
  ...

and you decide you move Foo to its own file, that file should look like

class Foo
  ...

window.Foo = Foo

(where window.Foo = Foo makes Foo a global), and Bar's file should start with the Sprockets directive

#= require Foo

(assuming that you've named Foo's file Foo.js.coffee). Each file is compiled into JS independently, but Sprockets will ensure that Foo is included before Bar.

Note that, as a shortcut, you can get rid of the window.Foo = Foo line, and instead write

class window.Foo
  ...

or simply

class @Foo
  ...

to define a class named Foo that's attached to the window object.