Routing in Rails making the Username an URL: - ruby-on-rails

Question

In my Rails App there is Device Model - User, and a Registry model( Each user has one registry).
I wanted to change my routes so that instead of:
"http://localhost:3000/registries/3"
it shows:
"http://localhost:3000/erinwalker"
So I changed routes to
match '/:name' => "registries#show"
And the show action in my controller to:
def show
#user = current_user
#user = User.find_by_name!(params[:name])
#registry = #user.registry
And it works, but when I create or update the registry now first it says:
Couldn't find User with name =
app/controllers/registries_controller.rb:21:in `show'
Even though the show action works?
The registries controller:
class RegistriesController < ApplicationController
before_filter :authenticate_user!, :except => :show
load_and_authorize_resource
# GET /registries
# GET /registries.json
def index
#registries = Registry.all
#user = current_user
respond_to do |format|
format.html # index.html.erb
format.json { render json: #registries }
end
end
# GET /registries/1
# GET /registries/1.json
def show
#user = current_user
#user = User.find_by_name!(params[:name])
#registry = #user.registry
respond_to do |format|
format.html # show.html.erb
format.json { render json: #registry }
end
end
# GET /registries/new
# GET /registries/new.json
def new
#registry = Registry.new
#user = current_user
respond_to do |format|
format.html # new.html.erb
format.json { render json: #registry }
end
end
# GET /registries/1/edit
def edit
#registry = Registry.find(params[:id])
#user = current_user
end
# POST /registries
# POST /registries.json
def create
#registry = current_user.build_registry(params[:registry])
#user = current_user
respond_to do |format|
if #registry.save
format.html { redirect_to #registry, notice: 'Registry was successfully created.' }
format.json { render json: #registry, status: :created, location: #registry }
else
format.html { render action: "new" }
format.json { render json: #registry.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
# PUT /registries/1
# PUT /registries/1.json
def update
#registry = Registry.find(params[:id])
#user = current_user
respond_to do |format|
if #registry.update_attributes(params[:registry])
format.html { redirect_to #registry, notice: 'Registry was successfully updated.' }
format.json { head :no_content }
else
format.html { render action: "edit" }
format.json { render json: #registry.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
All my Routes:
Mystorkparty::Application.routes.draw do
devise_for :users
resources :registries
root :to => "static_pages#home"
match '/home', to: 'static_pages#home'
match '/:name' => "registries#show"

Answer 1

When you create or update your models, you send POST /registries or PUT /registries/1.
But /registries is matched by your last rule match '/:name' => "registries#show", so the request hits the show action.
If you run rake routes you should see something like this:
POST /registries(.:format) registries#create
PUT /registries/:id(.:format) registries#update
DELETE /registries/:id(.:format) registries#destroy
/:name(.:format) registries#show
You can add method parameter to your route, so that it will hit show only on GET request.
match '/:name' => "registries#show", :via => :get
But there are still can be collisions in the future. For example, if you have registry name users.
So, it's commonly suggested to use prefixes (match '/r/:name') or define set of allowed names, or choose safe names for registries.
P.S. I don't think load_and_authorize_resource will work for your show action by default. Because it expects params[:id] to load the resource automatically.