Weird Routing Behavior in Rails - ruby-on-rails

Question

I'm using rails 4.2. I have created a form that submits to a particular action in my controller. Here is the beginning of the form code and the controller definition:
view.html.erb
<div id="account-booking" class="tab-pane">
<%= form_for #booking_info, url: { action: 'book' } do |b| %>
<fieldset class="group column-1">
<legend>Booking Preference for <%= Rails.configuration.x.app_settings.year %></legend>
<div class="group column-full radio-list">
<%= label_tag('Select Room Type') %>
<% #available_rooms.each do |rt| %>
<div class="radio-item">
<!--
<%= b.radio_button :room_type_id, rt.id, :class => 'rb_room_type inline', :onclick => fetch_room_info_path(:id => rt.id), :remote => true %>
<%= b.radio_button :room_type_id, rt.id, :class => 'rb_room_type inline', :onclick => 'render_room_info('+ rt.id.to_s + ');' %>
-->
<%= b.radio_button :room_type_id, rt.id, :class => 'rb_room_type inline' %>
<%= content_tag :span, rt.name %>
<a data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="right" title="<%= rt.description %>">
<%= image_tag "tooltip.png", :class=>"tooltip-icon" %>
</a>
</div>
<% end %>
<%= b.label :roommate_preference, 'Roommate Preference' %>
<%= b.text_area :roommate_preference, :class => 'form-control' %>
<div class="account-checkbox-options">
<%= b.label :is_flexible, class: 'checkbox inline' do %>
<%= b.check_box :is_flexible %>
I am flexible with regards to my room choice.
<% end %>
</div>
</div>
<!--
<div id="estimated-due" class="group column-2">
</div>
-->
</fieldset>
<fieldset class="group column-2 account-preferences">
<legend>Your Room Information for <%= Rails.configuration.x.app_settings.year %></legend>
<div class="group column-1">
<div class="group column-full add-tabbing">
<%= label_tag('Selected Room:') %>
<span><%= #booking_info.room_type.blank? ? '<No Room Selected>' : #booking_info.room_type.name %></span>
</div>
<div class="group column-full add-tabbing">
<%= label_tag('Assigned Room:') %>
<span><%= #booking_info.assigned_type.blank? ? '<No Room Assigned>' : #booking_info.assigned_type.name %></span>
</div>
</div>
<div class="group column-2">
<div class="group column-full add-tabbing">
<%= label_tag('Total Due:') %>
<span ><%= number_to_currency(#booking_info.total_due.blank? ? 0.00 : #booking_info.total_due) %></span>
</div>
<div class="group column-full add-tabbing">
<%= label_tag('Current Balance:') %>
<span><%= number_to_currency(#booking_info.outstanding_balance.blank? ? 0.00 : #booking_info.outstanding_balance) %></span>
</div>
</div>
<% unless #booking_info.assigned_type.blank? %>
<div class="group column-full">
<h2>Assigned Room Information</h2>
</div>
<% end %>
</fieldset>
<div class="account-buttons">
<%= b.submit 'Submit', class: 'btn btn-danger' %>
<%= link_to 'Cancel', '/pages/home', class: 'link-button-cancel' %>
</div>
<% end %>
</div>
account_controller.rb
def book
#booking = PersonRoom.new(booking_params)
#requested_room = RoomType.find(params[:person_room][:room_type_id])
#booking.room_type = #requested_room
if update_booking #booking
redirect_to :controller => 'account', :action => 'view'
else
render('view')
end
end
All of this works beautifully when there is no PersonRoom record (e.g. if I'm doing an insert). However, if I try to update the record, using the same exact form / action (because both the view and the action are exactly the same regardless of whether i'm inserting or updating), I get an error when I click "Submit":
No route matches [PATCH] "/account/book"
This makes no sense. I'm on the exact same page. I just used all of this code to create the record, so the route clearly exists (because it calls /account/book). Now I want to update but suddenly the route doesn't match? And it never even breaks into the code because it doesn't call the controller action. This makes zero sense to me. Hope someone can help.

Answer 1

I winced when looking over your code, here's how I'd have done it:
#config/routes.rb
resources :rooms do
resources :bookings #-> url.com/rooms/:room_id/bookings/new
end
#app/controllers/bookings_controller.rb
class BookingsController < ApplicationController
before_action :set_room
def new
#booking = room.bookings.new
end
def create
#booking = room.bookings.new booking_params
#booking.save
end
def update
#booking = room.bookings.update booking_params
end
private
def set_room
#room = Room.find params[:room_id]
end
def booking_params
params.require(:booking).permit(:x, :y, :z)
end
end
This setup is pretty standard with Rails (IE resourceful routes):
Browsers request pages from Rails by making a request for a URL using
a specific HTTP method, such as GET, POST, PATCH, PUT and DELETE. Each
method is a request to perform an operation on the resource. A
resource route maps a number of related requests to actions in a
single controller.
Observing this principle would likely resolve your "weird" routing errors due to their cohesion with the other aspects of the Rails system.
For example:
#app/controllers/accounts_controller.rb
class AccountsController < ApplicationController
#-> this shouldn't have a "book" action unless necessary. Your case is not necessary
end
--
The problem you have is that you're not adhering to the Rails' convention of keeping your system object-orientated.
The importance of this is huge; Rails is designed to make it as simple as possible to CRUD (create read update destroy) data objects. These objects are built from database data in the "models":
I use this picture a lot - it shows how Rails should work. You build objects in your Models which you manipulate in your controllers. The views show it all to the user.
Thus, when you're looking at your code, I would keep it as simple as possible:
#app/models/room.rb
class Room < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :bookings
has_many :users, through: :bookings
belongs_to :type
end
#app/models/booking.rb
class Booking < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :room
belongs_to :user
end
#app/models/user.rb
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :bookings
has_many :rooms, through: :bookings
end
This will allow you to call the following:
#room = Room.find 1
#room.bookings #-> collection of bookings per room
You could also do something like the following (simple) for the views:
#app/views/bookings/new.html.erb
<%= form_for #booking do |f| %>
<%= f.text_field :x %>
<%= f.text_field :y %>
<%= f.text_field :z %>
<%= f.submit %>
<% end %>

Answer 2

I found the problem. It was something really stupid. I had the following line in my route.config:
match ':controller(/:action(/:id))', :via => [:get, :post]
I just needed to change this to:
match ':controller(/:action(/:id))', :via => [:get, :post, :patch, :put, :delete]
Now it handles updates (i.e. patch / put)