Custom POST routes for create action not fired up - ruby-on-rails

Question

# Explaining the context
puts "I am learning Rails, building a simple forum application."
puts "I am pretty satisfied to where I got so far but routes... "
puts "...still figuring them out."
puts "Been 2 days trying all sorts of things."
puts "This is where I am now, and something is not working as expected."
puts "Any help/pointers would be appreciated! :)"
# The Problem
puts "I want my forum's create path to be '/helpcenter' and not '/helpcenter/cat'."
puts "When I access the form to create a new forum and I hit submit, "
puts "the form post to '/helpcenter' correctly (firebuged)"
puts "but I get the index, not the create!"
puts "I even put debugger in my create action but it is not being called."
# config/routes.rb
scope "/helpcenter" do
resources :cat, :controller => "forums", :as => :forums do
resources :topics , :controller => "forum_topics", :as => :topics
resources :posts, :controller => "forum_posts", :as => :posts
end
end
match "/helpcenter" => "forums#index", :as => :forums
match "/helpcenter" => "forums#create", :via => :post, :as => :create_forum
I hope this problem is in the way I created the route. I tried many different things.
# _form.html.erb
<%= form_for(#forum) do |f| %>
....
<% end %>
I am using standard form_for helper.
# Rake Routes for Forums
$ CONTROLLER=forums rake routes
delete_forum GET /helpcenter/cat/:id/delete(.:format) forums#delete
forums GET /helpcenter/cat(.:format) forums#index
POST /helpcenter/cat(.:format) forums#create
new_forum GET /helpcenter/cat/new(.:format) forums#new
edit_forum GET /helpcenter/cat/:id/edit(.:format) forums#edit
forum GET /helpcenter/cat/:id(.:format) forums#show
PUT /helpcenter/cat/:id(.:format) forums#update
DELETE /helpcenter/cat/:id(.:format) forums#destroy
forums /helpcenter(.:format) forums#index
create_forum POST /helpcenter(.:format) forums#create
We clearly see a route for POST /helpcenter which is binded to the create action of the forums controller.
# Logs
Started POST "/helpcenter" for 127.0.0.1 at 2012-07-02 12:25:00 -0400
Processing by ForumsController#index as HTML
Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", "authenticity_token"=>"d5iVKCh234234=", "forum"=>{"name"=>"", "description"=>""}, "commit"=>"Save Changes"}
The logs clearly shows I am doing a POST on /helpcenter but that it fires up the index action instead of the create action!
# What am I doing wrong?
puts "Thanks!"

Answer 1

I think the request matches your first forums route since you didn't specify a HTTP method. This should work:
match "/helpcenter" => "forums#index", :via => :get, :as => :forums
match "/helpcenter" => "forums#create", :via => :post, :as => :create_forum
Or the shorthand version:
get "/helpcenter" => "forums#index", :as => :forums
post "/helpcenter" => "forums#create", :as => :create_forum

Answer 2

First glance shows that a POST against /helpcenter passes the rule for the forums#index match, which is encountered first, so that's what you get
match "/helpcenter" => "forums#index", :as => :forums
match "/helpcenter" => "forums#create", :via => :post, :as => :create_forum
What about:
match "/helpcenter" => "forums#index", :via => :get, :as => :forums
match "/helpcenter" => "forums#create", :via => :post, :as => :create_forum