Display 'show' action in partial within the 'index' action's view - rails - ruby-on-rails-3

Question

I have a property search page (:controller => 'properties', :action => 'index') that consists of a right sidebar that has a search form which displays the search results below the form. When the user clicks on a property in the right sidebar I want to display the details of that property in the main area of the index page on the left.
Right sidebar is a partial called properties/_property.html.erb:
<%= form_tag properties_path, :method => 'get' do %>
<%= text_field_tag 'location', (params[:location]) %>
<%= select_tag(:max, options_for_select([['No Max', ""], ['$100,000', 100000], ['$200,000', 200000], etc %>
more search fields for baths beds etc
<%= submit_tag "Search", :name => nil %>
<% end %>
<% #properties.each do |property| %>
<%= link_to([property.Address,property.City].join(", "), {:action => 'show', :id => property.id}) %>
<li><strong><%= number_to_currency(property.Price, :precision => 0) %></strong></li>
etc etc
<% end %>
The only way I know how to show the property details is with the 'show' action, but that takes the user to a new page, for example localhost:3000/properties/1865. I've made the 'show' view with the same layout as the 'index' view and have made the right sidebar a partial (properties/_property.html.erb) which appears on both 'show' and 'index' so when the user clicks on a property in the right sidebar and goes to localhost:3000/properties/1865 the property details are displayed correctly in the main area and the right sidebar is on the right.
But because localhost:3000/properties/1865 is a different page than localhost:3000/properties/index the search form in the right sidebar has forgotten it's parameters which means the list of search results in the right sidebar has changed back to the default list of all properties.
How can I display the 'show' action within a partial on the index page so the user's search parameters are remembered by the form in the right sidebar? Or if I have to go to the 'show' page how can I make the right sidebar stay exactly as it is?
Any ideas greatly appreciated, just a suggestion in the right direction would be good, have spent all day trying to figure it out and have got nowhere, thanks

Answer 1

I have made the show view with the same layout as the index view and
have made the right sidebar a partial (properties/_property.html.erb)
which appears on both show and index.
Yes but this will only get you a similar layout for both the pages. You want the list to persist between different requests.
You basically have two options. use session to remember the list which I wont recommend.
Other is you use form :remote => true or ajax and update the page partially.
EDIT:
What version of rails you are using? Do u have jquery loaded in your application?
Follow this SO POST.
You might have to change your show action a bit.
respond_to do |format|
format.js {render :partial => 'property_details' ,:layout => false}
format.html
end
Create a partial for property details and just put body content here.
And link will look like
<%= link_to "link name", {:action => :show, :id => item_id}, :remote => true ,:html => {:class => 'links_product'} %>
Also to update the view you may use(make sure you have rails.js in your page):
$(document).ready(
function(){
$("a.links_product").bind("ajax:success",
function(evt, data, status, xhr){
$("#response").html(data); // in case data is html. (_*.html.erb)
}).bind("ajax:error", function(evt, xhr, status, error){
console.log('server error' + error );
});
});
Have a div with id response or any valid id. Done!