Turbo Frames Patterns

Turbo Frames

Frames scope navigation to a region: a click or form submit inside a <turbo-frame> is captured by Turbo and only that frame updates. The failures are quiet — a mistargeted or missing frame produces no error, just navigation that goes nowhere. Full patterns: references/turbo-frames-guide.md.

When to use

• Adding a frame (turbo_frame_tag "id" / <turbo-frame id="id">).
• Driving a frame from outside (data: { turbo_frame: "id" }) — e.g. a filter bar above a list.
• Lazy-loading a panel (src: + loading: :lazy).
• Inline-editing one record (a per-row turbo_frame_tag dom_id(record)).
• Debugging: a frame that does nothing, a click that navigates nowhere, a filter form that loses focus on each keystroke, or duplicate ids from a collection partial.

The patterns (and their footguns)

1. Target must resolve — a link targeting turbo_frame: "x" needs a turbo_frame_tag "x" in the response (and your views), or the click silently does nothing. Use _top to break out to a full-page navigation (the common case for row links). (linted)
2. Collection partials use dom_id(record) — a literal turbo_frame_tag "card" in a per-row partial stamps the same id on every row → duplicate DOM ids, only the first updates. (linted)
3. Frame request variant — render the lean show.html+turbo_frame.erb for frame requests (turbo_frame_request?) instead of re-rendering the whole layout.
4. turbo_action: "advance" — frame navigations don't change the URL by default; promote tab/list/filter frames so reload/back/forward work.
5. Filter/search forms go OUTSIDE the frame they target — a form inside the frame replaces itself (and the focused input) on every submit.
6. Lazy frames — src: + loading: :lazy defer content; the src response must contain a matching <turbo-frame id> or the frame stays empty.

Patterns 3–6 aren't checker-able with low false positives — see the reference.

Lint an app

scripts/lint_turbo_frames.sh path/to/rails-app

Flags (HIGH confidence, literal ids only): a dangling frame target — a link/form targets a frame id with no turbo_frame_tag / <turbo-frame id> defined in any view (navigation goes nowhere); a literal frame id inside a collection partial — duplicate DOM ids (use dom_id). Reserved targets (_top/_self) and dynamic ids (dom_id(...), interpolation, <%= %>) are never flagged — when either side is dynamic it can't be resolved statically, so it's skipped and reported as such. Heuristic regex scan (needs ruby), not an ERB/HTML parser — names its ceiling. Verified: clean on miela_app (6 real frames, all targets resolve, collection partials use dom_id), flags a synthetic dangling-target + duplicate-id app.