Block Region Setup

app_controller.rb

  # Build instance variables for block regions and loads an 
  # array of blocks into them 
  def load_blocks
    @regions       = Block.regions
    @blocks        = regions.blocks
    @block_regions = regions.regions

    @block_regions.each do |block, value|
      instance_variable_set "@#{block}", @blocks.select{ |b| b if b.where_to_show == value }
    end
  end

block.rb

  def self.regions
    regions = {
      :blocks  => self.all,
      :regions => {
        :header_blocks  => "header",
        :left_blocks    => "left",
        :content_blocks => "content",
        :right_blocks   => "right",
        :footer_blocks  => "footer",
      }
    }

    Hashie::Mash.new(regions)
  end

form.html.haml

  .item
    %br/
    = f.select(:where_to_show, @block_regions.map{|k,v| [k.titleize,v]}, {:prompt => 'Where should I show up?'}, :class => 'field')