Knowing .NET

Because I use primary_key_prefix_type = :table_name this did the trick for me. Basically, I just set up a hash mapping primary key column names (“InvoiceID” and the like) to the name of the appropriate controller (“invoice_admin”). When outputting a column, if the name of the column is contained in that hash, output a link. All I had to do was write a script to generate the hash and a template for the show.rhtml and Bob was my uncle…

# Methods added to this helper will be available to all templates in the application.

module ApplicationHelper

    #lazy initializer for mapping between the names of FK fields and the appropriate controller

    #:return: => nil

    def initialize_identity_columns

        @identityColumns = { 

      'InvoiceID' =>  'invoice_admin' 

      # ... etc ... 

    } 

    end

    #called within show.rhtml (probably) ala 

    # <% for column in LineItem.content_columns %>

    # <%= show_column_with_auto_hyperlink(@line_item, column) %>

    #<% end %>

    #:return: => String

    #:arg: currentObj => ActiveRecord::Base

    #:arg: column => ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::Column

    def show_column_with_auto_hyperlink(currentObj, column)

      if @identityColumns == nil

        initialize_identity_columns()

      end

      html = "<p><b>#{column.human_name}:</b> #{currentObj.send(column.name)}&nbsp;"

      optionalLink = nil    

      if @identityColumns[column.name] != nil 

          html += link_to("Show", { :controller => @identityColumns[column.name], :action => "show", :id => currentObj.send(column.name) })

      end

      html += "</p>"

      return html

    end

end