Rails flash messages with AJAX requests

README.md

Rails flash messages with AJAX requests

original: http://stackoverflow.com/a/10167659/656428

application.html.slim

#flash-message
  - flash.each do |name, msg|
    = content_tag :div, msg, :id => "flash_#{name}"

application_controller.rb

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  protect_from_forgery

  after_filter :flash_to_headers

  private

    def flash_to_headers
      return unless request.xhr?
      response.headers['X-Message'] = flash_message
      response.headers["X-Message-Type"] = flash_type.to_s

      flash.discard # don't want the flash to appear when you reload page
    end

    def flash_message
      [:error, :warning, :notice].each do |type|
        return flash[type] unless flash[type].blank?
      end
    end

    def flash_type
      [:error, :warning, :notice].each do |type|
        return type unless flash[type].blank?
      end
    end
end

flash_message.js.coffee

show_ajax_message = (msg, type) ->
  $("#flash-message").html "<div id='flash-#{type}'>#{msg}</div>"
  $("#flash-#{type}").delay(5000).slideUp 'slow'

$(document).ajaxComplete (event, request) ->
  msg = request.getResponseHeader("X-Message")
  type = request.getResponseHeader("X-Message-Type")
  show_ajax_message msg, type #use whatever popup, notification or whatever plugin you want

Thanks for compiling this! It saved me a lot of time. You might be interested in this fork which fixes several bugs, including the one that caused the flash to output error if no flash messages were present.

Here's my version of the application_controller.rb:

if request.xhr?
  #avoiding XSS injections via flash
  flash_json = Hash[flash.map{|k,v| [k,ERB::Util.h(v)] }].to_json
  response.headers['X-Flash-Messages'] = flash_json
  flash.discard
end

do either of these actually work? I haven't had any success

I didn't have any success either. I stripped out the above code and realized the flash was being set through the session. Maybe it will help you.

def ajax_controller_action
    if request.xhr?
      flash[:notice] = "message."
      flash.keep(:notice)
      render js: "window.location = #{your_path}"
    end
end

    -if session["flash"]["flashes"]
      - session["flash"]["flashes"].each do |type, message|
          = type
          = message

Thanks James! This just helped me out.

Yes, Thanks James It even worked out for me.