I have a counter in my model that I want to give the user the ability to
reset it, I'm wondering what's the best way to achieve this. I can think of
two ways:
By a custom controller action.
Simple and easy but I can't decide which HTTP verb to use. I can make the
case that it should be a GET because the user clicks a link that reset
the counter and the result are always the same, i.e. counter
becomes 0. But it could also be a POST/PATCH since we are modifying
something on the server but POST/PATCH requires a form which leads to
the other way.
By a link that submits an edit form with the counter reset to 0 without
the user seeing the form.
I like this solution because it can be done with RESTful controller
methods. But I have no idea how to do that with Rails, or even if it's
possible.
So which is "Rails Way" to do this? and how do I do it?
Rather than creating a custom action, another approach is to create a well-named controller and stick to the RESTful controller method names.
config/routes.rb
resource :counter_reset, only: [:create]
app/controllers/counter_reset_controller.rb
class CounterResetController < ApplicationController
def create
# reset your counter
end
end
Then POST to counter_reset_path in your view
Personally, I would use button_to — this generates a single button that submits to the URL; it performs a POST operation by default. If you don't like the button style, you can switch to using link_to; however, keep in mind that if a user has JavaScript disabled, the request will fallback to using GET.
<%= button_to "Reset counter!", counter_reset_path %>
<%= link_to "Reset counter!", counter_reset_path, method: :post %>
http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/UrlHelper.html#method-i-button_to
http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/UrlHelper.html#method-i-link_to
Update:
If you prefer not to create a new controller, you can create a new route that maps to a custom action in your existing controller:
config/routes.rb
resources :counters do
post :reset, to: "counters#reset"
end
app/controllers/counters_controller.rb
class CountersController < ApplicationController
def reset
# reset your counter
end
end
In your view:
<%= button_to "Reset counter!", counter_reset_path %>
Actually you don't need a form, for me i would add a new action, it would look something like this ( of course depends on how your current routing looks like )
/user/:id/counter/reset # with action = post
And the link is very simple, you just create a link_to and add a method: :post which will add a data-method: :post in the html, the rest will be handled by the unobtrusive js.
The reason I don't recommend the form method, is users might use it to update different attributes that you might not want to update, or at least even change the counter to whatever number they want, I prefer the specific number to be defined in the controller not the view/form.
Related
all, I'm trying to get a custom action to work with a put method: in the
in _post.html.erb i have a link_to statement:
<%= link_to 'End now', post, :method => :put, :action => endnow %>
routes.rb contains:
resources :posts do
member do
put :endnow
end
and posts_controller.rb looks like:
class PostsController < ApplicationController
helper_method :endnow
[.. code for create, edit, destroy, etc ..]
def endnow
puts params
end
end
rake routes's relevant line looks like:
endnow_post PUT /posts/:id/endnow(.:format) posts#endnow
However, the action endnow helper doesn't run when clicking on this link.
Strangely, it does run with an index action (which i can tell from the puts command.
Of course, eventually the code for endnow will update #post, but for now, it just doesn't run properly.
Maybe i'm going about this the wrong way - all I'm trying to achieve is to update #post upon clicking the link to that post, and before showing it.
Any ideas / Alternatives?
Why not use the route helper method provided to you? Change your link to
<%= link_to 'End now', endnow_post_path(#post), method: :put %>
Things you're doing wrong:
If you want to specify the :action, use the Symbol for the action (you're missing a colon). :action => endnow should be action: :endnow
I will assume you have a #post instance variable you're passing from your controller to your action. You should be using that instead of post (unless you do in fact have a local post variable you're omitting from your code)
You are using endnow as an action; you should remove the helper_method :endnow line in your controller because it's not something you want to/should be accessing from your view.
This can all be avoided by using the route helper (for endnow_post you'd append _path to get the local route path: endnow_post_path), and pass in your #post as an argument.
Because you're trying to do a PUT request, you must make sure you have something like jquery-ujs included in your asset pipeline to convert these links to form submissions behind the scenes; browsers don't support PUT via the click of a link on their own.
As for why you're getting the template error when you get your link_to working, Rails is telling you that you need to create a app/views/posts/endnow.html.erb file. Your action has only puts params which does not terminate execution, leaving Rails to assume you still are trying to render some endnow.html.erb template.
Are there other ways to do what you're trying to do (change a single attribute of a specific model)? Sure. Are there better ways? That's pretty subjective; it may not be the most RESTful way, but it's arguably easier to deal with (if for example there are very specific authorization rules to check before updating the attribute you are modifying in endnow. Does the way you've started fleshing out work? Absolutely.
Finally, as a bump in the right direction, after you fix your link_to and remove the the helper_method as I have described above, your endnow action might look like this:
def endnow
post = Post.find!(params[:id])
post.some_attribute_here = some_new_value_here
post.save
redirect_to :root and return # <- this line sets a redirect back to your homepage and terminates execution, telling rails to do the redirect and **not** to render some endnow.html.erb file
end
So, I tried searching (a lot :( ) and haven't been able to find anything to help.
I feel like this is something I've done before, but I just can't seem to figure it out.
I have installed a gem (Recommendable, yay!), that allows me access to a bunch of methods(?):
user.like(movie)
=> true
In a view, I tried putting <%= link_to "Like", #user.like(#movie) %>... however, this seems to actually just run #user.like(#movie) on page load... automatically setting that user to like that movie.
What am I missing? :\
Much thanks in advance!
You want to have a a LikesController for stuff like this I guess. And then you can remote link to the create action and inside this create action you can actually do the like you want to do:
class LikesController < ApplicationController
def create
# assuming you have some method to get you the current_user
# and assuming you just want to like movies
movie = Movie.find_by_id(params[:id])
current_user.like(movie) if movie
# maybe check for success and return some meaningfull message
end
end
and then inside the view you can do:
<%= link_to "Like", likes_path(#movie), remote: true %>
This should trigger the like.
Don't forget to create a route in routes.rb for the LikesController.
You should always keep in mind, that for an action a user should be able to take, you need an action in a controller. The view always just presents a given state to the user with options to take action.
I am looking for the right approach to include a preview action between new and create actions.
Let's assume I have the following:
resources :users
By default, when the form is submitted:
if new, call create action;
if edit, call update action.
In this way, I can use the same form (partial) for new and create, which is great!
How can I configure the resources to include a preview between actions. I mean, forcing new to call preview and then preview to call create.
I could add a new route/action and point the form for that action, however the same form cannot be used for new and edit.
There is a way to configure the resources to do that?
Have a look at this railscast: multibutton form, it shows a form with both a 'preview' and 'submit' button, maybe that's something you might want to do.
By the way, couldn't you use the same form by passing locals to the partial? For example:
<%= form_for #profile, url: dynamic_path do |f| %>
...
<% end %>
<%= render 'form', dynamic_path: profile_preview_path %>
you have several ways to do this:
you change the url of the form to your preview action (for which you have to add a route).
you use your create action for preview and create:
i.e. you add a parameter (like ':go_to_preview') to the form submit request. if you find it in the controller you render preview.
when the user wants to confirm the preview, you submit the data again (without that parameter) and this time create the record.
there are also 2 more dynamic possibilities:
you create the preview in real-time - if that is possible (like here on SO) - and use just the create action,
a variation of the first option: when the user submits the form, you send an ajax post request to a preview action, render a partial and include it on the page, then while your user still has the form he just filled, the user decides if she wants to modify or submit definitely.
I would suggest adding a DateTime column "finished_at", "published_on", etc... whatever is appropriate for your domain.
Using blog posts as an example:
scope :published, where("published_on IS NOT NULL")
scope :draft, where(:published_on => nil)
Use the scopes and new field where appropriate to limit the follow up actions.
This approach gives you more than you asked for :
a way to limit processing based on "state"
Data on creation times versus publishing times
I have a method in one of my models that, when called, fetches a tweet using the twitter gem and stores some parts of it. I'd like to be able to trigger that action from the web interface to my app. What is the Rails Way to accomplish this? I've seen some references to not calling model methods from views, so should I be doing this from within a controller somehow instead?
My method (the relevant models are Sponsor and Sponsortweet (so my model name wouldn't conflict with Tweet, from the gem):
def create_tweet
tweet = Twitter.user_timeline(self.twitter).first
self.sponsortweets.create!(content: tweet.text,
tweet_id: tweet.id,
tweet_created_at: tweet.created_at,
profile_image_url: tweet.user.profile_image_url,
from_user: tweet.from_user,)
end
EDIT:
I created a tweet method in my sponsors controller:
def tweet
#sponsor = Sponsor.find(params[:id])
#sponsor.create_tweet
end
and added the following to my config/routes.rb: match 'tweet', to: 'sponsors#tweet', via: :post.
As well as the following code in my view (I'm using haml):
= button_to :tweet, tweet_path(#sponsor)
However, clicking the button results in the following error:
Couldn't find Sponsor without an ID
Your view should have a button that posts to a specific route in your controller. That controller would then call the method in your model. Having no idea what your app actually looks like, here's an example:
EDIT includes better example
View (assuming it's a Sponsor view):
<%= button_to :submit, tweet_path %>
Controller:
def tweet
Sponsor.create_tweet
end
And your model would stay the same, except you'd change your method to a class method like so:
def self.create_tweet
...your code here...
end
Since it seems this isn't tied to any particular sponsor, you'll use a class method and thus don't need an instance of the class to call your method. That said, it seems like you would want an instance of your class at some point...
I'd be curious to hear other people's answers, as I'm now wondering if there is such a way to bypass the controller all-together.
However, my take on this is that, since Rails is an MVC (Model View Controller) framework, I think the Rails way of accomplishing what you're considering is probably to simply handle the action normally; through the controller to the model.
If I am correct in assuming you have a button or link, or perhaps some AJAX, which is initiating the server-side Twitter processing, then I would set up your routing for that URL to point to a controller action method, which would then call your model method myModel.create_tweet.
I have a model I named User, and I want use two different Views to edit it: the usual edit view and another view I called edit_profile.
I had no problem in creating routing, controller and views: I added edit_profile and update_profile views, and I added on routes.rb the line:
map.resources :users ,:member => {:edit_profile => :get, :update_profile => :put}
The problem is: when I submit the form in edit_profile and some error occur in some input fields, rails reload the edit_path page instead of edit_profile_path page !
This is the form on edit_profile.html.erb
form_for(:user, #user, :url => {:action => :update_profile}, :html => { :method => :put} ) do |f|
f.text_field :description
f.text_area :description
f.error_message_on :description
....
....
f.submit 'Update profile'
After clicking Update profile, if input errors occur I want to show edit_profile view instead of edit view
Where is the problem ?
Do You have some ideas ?
many thanks
Adding extra actions to a RESTful controller is often a code smell, an indication that there's a better way to model what you're trying to do. In this case, profile is really a sub-resource of user:
map.resources :users, :has_one => :profile
making your profile routes like
GET /users/1/profile # show
GET /users/1/profile/edit #edit
PUT /users/1/profile # update
DELETE /users/1/profile #destroy
You will have a separate ProfilesController for these actions... much cleaner.
How you model the data is up to you, (you don't have to have a one-to-one correlation between your models and your controllers!), but in this case I'd probably use ActiveRecord's aggregations to model the relationship between User and Profile. Think of it as an embedded has_one: http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Aggregations/ClassMethods.html
Note that adding additional actions to RESTful controllers isn't always "wrong" ... its up to you to determine when its appropriate to split off the new actions into a separate resource. In this case, however, I think it's very clear-cut!
Your controller's action (the edit action, I assume) will need to know whether it has been reached via the normal edit page or the edit_profile page. You can use a hidden field named, perhaps, profile to post a breadcrumb that will tell it that. By doing this, you can redirect conditionally based on the existence of a profile param.
A cleaner way is to create a new action called edit_profile and extract the editing code to a common method that is called from both edit and edit_profile let the public methods handle any redirects.
Take a look in your user_controller file's update method. That's where submitting the edit form takes you. You'll see there that if the record can't be updated, it redirects back to the edit method.
One way to do what you want is to make your edit_profile form point to a new method, perhaps called update_profile, which is the same as the edit method but redirects to edit_profile when the record can't be saved.
Perhaps a better and DRY-er way to do it would be to pass a parameter from the edit_profile form that you can detect in your existing update method to differentiate between update attempts coming from edit / edit_profile.
Good luck!