A year after the Merb and HAML gravy train whooshed by I’m finally giving them a run for their money.

...and whilst the snippet below may be old news to some, I’m sure there’s a bunch of us whom might not have had the pleasure of using both HAML and Merb Helpers.

Witness the following piece of view code:

%h2 New post

- form_for(@post, :action => url(:admin_posts)) do
  %p= text_control      :title,  :label => "Title" 
  %p= text_control      :slug,   :label => "Slug" 
  %p= text_area_control :body,   :label => "Body" 
  %p= select_control    :format, :label => "Format",
                                 :collection => Formatter.formatters, 
                                 :selected => MenkiConfig.default_post_format
  %p
    = submit_button "Publish" 
    = submit_button "Save as Draft" 

See the lack of block parameter on the form_for? Notice the :label option. A select_control whose API simply works. Very noice.

The end result:

<h2>New post</h2>
<form method="post" action="/admin/posts">
<p>
  <label for="post_title">Title</label><input type="text" class="text" name="post[title]" value="" id="post_title"/>
</p>
<p>
  <label for="post_slug">Slug</label><input type="text" class="text" name="post[slug]" value="" id="post_slug"/>
</p>
<p>
  <label for="post_body">Body</label><textarea name="post[body]" id="post_body"></textarea>
</p>
<p>
  <label for="post_format">Format</label><select name="post[format]" id="post_format"><option value="html">html</option><option value="textile">textile</option><option value="markdown" selected="selected">markdown</option><option value="haml">haml</option></select>
</p>
<p>
  <button type="submit">Publish</button>
  <button type="submit">Save as Draft</button>
</p>
</form>

If you’re writing your own view code and not being handed HTML mockups, or you can get your designer to speak HAML, I highly recommend checking it out.