image_url function in Ruby on Rails

23 Dec 2009

If you need to get the full URL of an image, just put the following code snippet into ApplicationHelper module in your app/helpers/application_helper.rb:

def image_url(source)
  abs_path = image_path(source)
  unless abs_path =~ /^http/
    abs_path = "#{request.protocol}#{request.host_with_port}#{abs_path}"
  end
 abs_path
end

I wonder why this function is not already a standard part of Rails.

(Idea by Rob Biedenharn)