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+---
+title: "Highlight link based on current page in rails"
+date: 2008-09-27T19:47:00Z
+comments: false
+url: /post/52081481/highlight-link-based-on-current-page-in-rails
+tags:
+---
+
+
+
+This is common pattern in website navigation, where it highlights the link (usually by setting `class=”active”`) that took you to the current page while you are on that page.
+<!--more-->
+First, define a helper:
+
+```ruby
+def is_active?(page_name)
+  "active" if params[:action] == page_name
+end
+
+```
+
+Then call it in your link_to’s in your layout as such:
+
+```ruby
+link_to 'Home', '/', :class => is_active?("index")
+link_to 'About', '/about', :class => is_active?("about")
+link_to 'contact', '/contact', :class => is_active?("contact")
+```
+
+This effect is achieved due to how link_to handles being passed `nil` for its `:class`, so when `is_active?` returns `nil` (because its not the current page), `link_to` outputs nothing as its class (not `class=””` as you might expect).