Is there a better way to define these routes? - ruby-on-rails

Question

I'm working on supporting users in my Rails app. There's no need for a user to even be aware that there are other users out there. I don't want to just use resources :users, because the routes that generates are these:
users GET /users users#index
POST /users users#create
new_user GET /users/new users#new
edit_user GET /users/:id/edit users#edit
user GET /users/:id users#show
PATCH /users/:id users#update
PUT /users/:id users#update
DELETE /users/:id users#destroy
(.:format) removed for improved readability.
You'd have to put the user id number in the URL, and that offers a chance for users to be aware that other users exist. I want these routes:
users GET /users users#index
POST /users users#create
new_user GET /users/new users#new
edit_user GET /users/me/edit users#edit
user GET /users/me users#show
PATCH /users/me users#update
PUT /users/me users#update
DELETE /users/me users#destroy
Yes. /users/me is the path of your user, and that's the only user path you can get at.
But the problem is defining these routes. Here's one idea:
resources :users, constraints: { id: 'me' }
And in the User model:
def to_param
'me'
end
But that seems too kludgy for me. Any better ideas?

Answer 1

With Singular Resources your are good to go ;-)
Define your routes like this:
# config/routes.rb
resources :users, only: [:index, :create, :new]
resource :user, path: '/users/me', only: [:show, :edit, :update, :destroy]
Your routes will be singular (/user) if you leave the path: option. Play around with the options ;-)
And your rake routes result should look like this:
Prefix Verb URI Pattern Controller#Action
users GET /users(.:format) users#index
POST /users(.:format) users#create
new_user GET /users/new(.:format) users#new
edit_user GET /users/me/edit(.:format) users#edit
user GET /users/me(.:format) users#show
PATCH /users/me(.:format) users#update
PUT /users/me(.:format) users#update
DELETE /users/me(.:format) users#destroy
You can also test the routes on the Rails console (rails c)
2.1.3 :001 > Rails.application.routes.url_helpers.user_path
=> "/users/me"
2.1.3 :002 > Rails.application.routes.url_helpers.edit_user_path
=> "/users/me/edit"
If you want, you can pluralize :user on the Singular Resources, but don't forget to set the as: option, her an example:
# config/routes.rb
resources :users, only: [:index, :create, :new]
resource :users, path: '/users/me', as: 'user', only: [:show, :edit, :update, :destroy]
Please take a look to the notes and warnings in the Rails guide! Here is an excerpt:
A long-standing bug prevents form_for from working automatically with singular resources. ...