ruby script/plugin install svn://rubyforge.org/var/svn/pivotalrb/cacheable_flash/trunk

To use, include the CacheableFlash module in your controller. It's all or none on the actions in your controller, so you can't mix JS and HTML display of your flash message in a controller. No other modifications to the controller are needed. You will need to add divs and some javascript to your view or layout templates to render the flash in the browser.

Note that the cookie holding the flash messages is removed as the page is displayed, so a refresh will clear the flash message (just as happens normally).

=== Example Controller

class MyController < ActionController::Base
  include CacheableFlash
  # ...
end

=== Example Template Markup

  < ActionController::Base
    def index
      flash["notice"] = "In index"
    end
  end

  class ControllerTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
    include CacheableFlash::TestHelpers

    def setup
      @controller = TestController.new
      @request = ActionController::TestRequest.new
      @response = ActionController::TestResponse.new
    end

    def test_cacheable_flash_action
      get :index
      asset_equal "In index", flash_cookie["notice"]
    end
  end

=== Rspec Example

  require "cacheable_flash/test_helpers"

  class TestController < ActionController::Base
    def index
      flash["notice"] = "In index"
    end
  end

  describe TestController, "#index" do
    include CacheableFlash::TestHelpers
    
    it "writes to the flash cookie" do
      get :index
      flash_cookie["notice"].should == "In index"
    end
  end

There is currently no advanced documentation for this plugin.