ID param not being sent to Controller when manually changing routes - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have looked through the other answers provided on StackOverflow, and none of them answered my question. Here is what is happening with my code.
Error
undefined method `update' for nil:NilClass
Problem:
It looks like the param id is not being sent to the controller from the form as they show up as nil in the console using byebug.
console readout:
(byebug) params[:id]
nil
(byebug) #support
nil
(byebug) params[:title]
nil
(byebug) params[:support]
<ActionController::Parameters {"title"=>"Test", "subtitle"=>"testing",
"website"=>"www.test.com", "type_of_support"=>"", "description"=>""}
permitted: false>
(byebug) params[:support][:id]
nil
(byebug) params[:support][:title]
"Test"
I do not believe that the problem is with the form as it is the same form partial used for the new/create action and the params are sent to the controller then and the object is created (though in that case there is no id, since it is generated when creating the object, not passed from the form).
You can see in my code below that the route for PATCH is just 'support' without the :id param. If I try to add that to the route, I get an error stating that there is no route matching 'support/'. So, I have to take away the :id param in the route for it to pass the information to the controller.
I am at a loss here. How do I pass the :id to the controller? How does rails do this? Before I manually change the routes, the automatic routes from resources :supports includes an :id param for the PATCH route and it works. What am I doing wrong that it won't allow me to add that to the route?
Code:
config/routes.rb
get 'support', as: 'supports', to: 'supports#index'
post 'support', to: 'supports#create'
get 'support/new', as: 'new_support', to: 'supports#new'
get 'support/:id/edit', as: 'edit_support', to: 'supports#edit'
get 'support/:title', as: 'support_page', to: 'supports#show'
patch 'support/', to: 'supports#update'
put 'support/:id', to: 'supports#update'
delete 'supports/:id', to: 'supports#destroy'
Results this for rake routes:
supports GET /support(.:format) supports#index
support POST /support(.:format) supports#create
new_support GET /support/new(.:format) supports#new
edit_support GET /support/:id/edit(.:format) supports#edit
support_page GET /support/:title(.:format) supports#show
PATCH /support(.:format) supports#update
PUT /support/:id(.:format) supports#update
DELETE /supports/:id(.:format) supports#destroy
app/controllers/supports_controllers.rb
class SupportsController < ApplicationController
before_action :set_support_by_title, only: [:show]
before_action :set_support_by_id, only: [:edit, :update, :destroy]
def index
#supports = Support.all
end
def show
end
def new
#support = Support.new
end
def edit
end
def create
#support = Support.new(support_params)
respond_to do |format|
if #support.save
format.html { redirect_to #support,
notice: 'Support was successfully created.' }
else
format.html { render :new }
end
end
end
def update
# byebug
respond_to do |format|
if #support.update(support_params)
format.html { redirect_to #support,
notice: 'Support was successfully updated.' }
else
format.html { render :edit }
end
end
end
def destroy
#support.destroy
respond_to do |format|
format.html { redirect_to supports_url,
notice: 'Support was successfully destroyed.' }
end
end
private
# Use callbacks to share common setup or constraints between actions.
def set_support_by_title
#support = Support.find_by(title: params[:title])
# byebug
end
def set_support_by_id
#support = Support.find(params[:id])
# byebug
end
# Never trust parameters from the scary internet,
# only allow the white list through.
def support_params
params.require(:support).permit(:title,
:subtitle,
:website,
:type_of_support,
:description)
end
end
app/views/supports/edit.html.erb
<h1>Editing Support</h1>
<%= render 'form', support: #support %>
<%= link_to 'Show', support_page_path(#support.title) %> |
<%= link_to 'Back', supports_path %>
app/views/supports/_form.html.erb
<%= form_with(model: support, local: true) do |form| %>
<% if support.errors.any? %>
<div id="error_explanation">
<h2><%= pluralize(support.errors.count, "error") %>
prohibited this support from being saved:
</h2>
<ul>
<% support.errors.full_messages.each do |message| %>
<li><%= message %></li>
<% end %>
</ul>
</div>
<% end %>
<div class="field">
Title:
<%= form.text_field :title, id: :support_title %>
</div>
<div class="field">
Subtitle:
<%= form.text_field :subtitle, id: :support_subtitle %>
</div>
<div class="field">
Website:
<%= form.text_field :website, id: :support_website %>
</div>
<div class="field">
Type of Support:
<%= form.text_field :type_of_support, id: :support_type %>
</div>
<div class="field">
Description:
<%= form.text_area :description, id: :support_description %>
</div>
<div class="actions">
<%= form.submit %>
</div>
<% end %>

Answer 1

While writing this question, I thought of something and tried it. And it worked. Instead of re-writing all of the routes myself, I wrote only 2 and used the resources :supports, except: [:index, :show] to have rails generate the others. This solved my issue.
Explanation
I knew that something was going on behind the scenes that I did not understand. The entire process worked fine before I started to change the routes. So, something in there was incorrect. (I still don't know what it is and how to change it.)
The only two routes that I really want to be changed are the two that users see. I don't care about how the routes look in the admin backend. So, that meant that I only needed to change the routes for index and show to be SEO friendly and look better in the browser. So, to do that I wrote the routes like this:
config/routes.rb
resources :supports, except: [:index, :show]
get 'support', as: 'support_index', to: 'supports#index'
get 'support/:title', as: 'support_page', to: 'supports#show'
This then created all of the new, create, edit, update, destroy routes for me. After doing this, this is how my routes now look:
supports POST /supports(.:format) supports#create
new_support GET /supports/new(.:format) supports#new
edit_support GET /supports/:id/edit(.:format) supports#edit
support PATCH /supports/:id(.:format) supports#update
PUT /supports/:id(.:format) supports#update
DELETE /supports/:id(.:format) supports#destroy
support_index GET /support(.:format) supports#index
support_page GET /support/:title(.:format) supports#show
As you can see, the PATCH route is now getting the param :id to be able to update the record.
Now, I just had to change a few of the redirects in the controller after create, update and destroy like this:
def create
#support = Support.new(support_params)
respond_to do |format|
if #support.save
format.html { redirect_to support_page_path(title: #support.title),
notice: 'Support was successfully created.' }
else
format.html { render :new }
end
end
end
def update
respond_to do |format|
if #support.update(support_params)
format.html { redirect_to support_page_path(title: #support.title),
notice: 'Support was successfully updated.' }
else
format.html { render :edit }
end
end
end
def destroy
#support.destroy
respond_to do |format|
format.html { redirect_to support_index_path,
notice: 'Support was successfully deleted.' }
end
end
These redirect_to statements now match the routes that I generated for index and show.
And now everything works.
So, problem solved, though I still don't know what I was doing wrong before. Any light that can be shed would be appreciated.