Helper Methods in Boxes

Boxes are really just anonymous classes, so you can define any methods you want inside of a box without fear of them leaking out into the current namespace.

For instance:

Boxer.box(:place) do |box, place|
  box.view(:base) do
    {
      :name       => place.name,
      :image_urls => place_images(place),
    }
  end

  def place_images(p)
    {
      :square_100 => p.image(:small),
      :square_200 => p.image(:large),
    }
  end
end

Defining methods like this can be helpful for sharing common bits across different views, or just encapsulating some shared attributes. As a matter of code organization, it's not recommended that any business logic take place in these methods, but that they call out to model methods with business logic instead.