This is primarily going to be a repost to some extent but would like to add a piece that I think will help even more. Based on http://www.cuberick.com/2010/05/simple-tabbed-navigation-in-rails.html I have added a simple regex that I think will help with the current status and be flexible to change on the fly if rules change.
<ul> <li class="<%= selected_navigation(:items) %>"><%= link_to "Items", items_path %></li> <li class="<%= selected_navigation(:things) %>"><%= link_to "Things", things_path %></li> </ul>
and then add in the ApplicationHelper this simple code
def selected_navigation(element) request.fullpath =~ /\/#{element.to_s}/ ? "current" : "" end
