difference between resource and controller generators - ruby-on-rails

Question

when I do
rails g model user name:string
rails g controller users index create new destroy show
and edit config/routes.rb to add:
resource :users
bundle exec rake routes gives:
users POST /users(.:format) {:action=>"create", :controller=>"users"}
new_users GET /users/new(.:format) {:action=>"new", :controller=>"users"}
edit_users GET /users/edit(.:format) {:action=>"edit", :controller=>"users"}
GET /users(.:format) {:action=>"show", :controller=>"users"}
PUT /users(.:format) {:action=>"update", :controller=>"users"}
DELETE /users(.:format) {:action=>"destroy", :controller=>"users"}
however, when I do
rails g resource users name:string
(which automatically adds resources :users to config/routes.rb)
bundle exec rake routes
I get
users GET /users(.:format) {:action=>"index", :controller=>"users"}
POST /users(.:format) {:action=>"create", :controller=>"users"}
new_user GET /users/new(.:format) {:action=>"new", :controller=>"users"}
edit_user GET /users/:id/edit(.:format) {:action=>"edit", :controller=>"users"}
user GET /users/:id(.:format) {:action=>"show", :controller=>"users"}
PUT /users/:id(.:format) {:action=>"update", :controller=>"users"}
DELETE /users/:id(.:format) {:action=>"destroy", :controller=>"users"}
So my question is,
when I generate a controller how can I get the correct helper methods to make
link_to 'Destroy', instance, :method=> :delete
work?
Because currently it gives an error user_path is not defined.

Answer 1

You should call
rails g controller user index create new destroy show
instead of
rails g controller users index create new destroy show
in order to get resources :users to give you the helpers you want.
The latter causes Rails to assume that users is a singular object, and that resources :users should create what is called a singular resource:
http://guides.rubyonrails.org/routing.html#singular-resources
as a result, user_path is undefined, whereas users_path is defined.

Answer 2

When you use rails g controller and specify the method names, the generator only maps specific routes to the routes file. rails g resource assumes that you want the whole resource functionality and will map resources.
In order to fix this, just go into your routes file and replace the specific mappings with a resources call.
resources :users

Answer 3

What I really wanted was a way of creating a working (with correct delete/show paths) controller for an existing model (as described in the question) but just adding "resource :x" and generating the controller wasn't enough.
I ended up using the scaffold_controller generator. It doesn't create any migrations or models, but it does generate a resource with views and rake paths command shows the correct paths for delete and show to work.

Answer 4

You can run following commands in the console:
$rails g model user name:string
$rails g scaffold_controller User
And add this code line to the file routes.rb:
resources :users