Using URI-fragments in Ruby on rails routing - ruby-on-rails

RoR application can generate URL such as /post/10. But now I want to create a site, which works with URI-fragments like gmail.
For example gmail uses the following URLs
https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#sent
https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#label/books
I need to generate URL such as /#/post/10, where controller = "post", action = "show", id = "10".
Of course it will be good to use standard url-helpers.

According to this question everything after # is not sent to server. And if you want to handle something after # then you should use js (as #Gumbo said).
If you want to create complicated routes you can use route globbing - so this is the way to handle complicated url on server side. But if you want to generate urls you can write your own helpers. Url is nothing more than simple string.

The URI fragment is not sent to the server but only for local purpose. So you would need a client side language like JavaScript to parse the fragment and retrieve the resource.

Related

Ruby On Rails - Use "Format" As A URL GET Parameter?

I have a search page where I update the URL params on the page as filters are added or removed by the user. This allows me to deep link into the page (ie. going to /search?location=new+york&time=afternoon will set the location and afternoon filters).
I also have a filter named format. I noticed that passing in ?format=whatevervalue to the URL and then reloading the page with that param causes Rails to return a Completed 406 Not Acceptable error. It seems that format is a reserved Rails URL parameter.
Is there anyway to unreserve this parameter name for a particular endpoint?
In the context of an URL in Ruby on Rails there are at least four reserved parameter names: controller, method, id, format.
You cannot use these keys for anything else than for their intended purpose.
If you try to you will override the value internally set by Rails. In your example by setting ?format=whatevervalue you override the default format (html) and your application will try to find and render a whatevervalue template instead of the html formatted template. This will obviously not work.
Fun fact: Instead of using the default Rails path format like /users/123/edit you could use query parameters instead like this: /?controller=users&id=123&method=edit&format&html.
My suggestion is: Do not try to fight Rails conventions. Whenever you try to work around basic Rails conventions it will hurt you later on because it makes updates more difficult, common gems might break, unexpected side-effects will happen. Just use another name for that parameter.

How to use external URL as path (Rails)

I am trying to create routes within an app that I am working on like the following example:
http://www.example.com/entrepreneur.com/article/251468
My hope is to basically load an external page into an iframe by adding our domain to the URL. It needs to be without storing the external url in a database because I need every website accessable in this way. How can I do this?
You need a route with a wildcard like this:
get 'url/*args', to: 'your_controller#your_action'
See http://guides.rubyonrails.org/routing.html#route-globbing-and-wildcard-segments
I would suggest you namespace the route under some keyword to catch this wildcard route explicitly (hence url in the above).
You may need to tweak the route to allow periods to prevent them from becoming the format. I forget if that's true for these or not.

IE9 removes # part from URL (works on Firefox! )

I am working on an application with ASP.NET MVC Routing + AngularJS routing.
My URL lookslike:
https://example.com/Request/#/Search/Request/123
when I breakdown this (http://example.com/Request) is handled by ASP.NET MVC routing. i.e. (Area = Request, controller = "Default", action = "Index")
(#/Search/Request/123) is handled by AngularJS routing.
This works perfectly when I am on http://localhost:8080/
The issue is when I deploy this application to https://example.com/
In this case, If user clicks on above link (received via email),IE 9 recognizes only (https://example.com/Request/") and the server never gets (#/Search/Request/123).
We have enterprise SSO implemented on web server. SSO client intercepts http request and uses URL to redirect back to requested page after authentication.
if # fragment is not sent as part of http request url, sso is not able to redirect back to same page.
I believe this to be a common scenario/issue. I would keep changing the URL scheme as last resort. e.g. (# to !).
How to solve this?
Just found a blog that dealt with this issue exactly:
http://codetunnel.io/how-to-persist-url-hash-fragments-across-a-login-redirect/
He offers two ideas:
When the page loads there simply needs to be some JavaScript that accesses the hash fragment and appends it to the redirect URL in the hidden field. Here's an example using JQuery for simplicity
$(function () {
var $redirect = $('[name="redirect"]');
$redirect.val($redirect.val() + window.location.hash);
});
Or, alternatively
Instead of appending the hash fragment to the hidden field value, you could avoid sending it to the server at all and simply append it to the form action URL.
$(function () {
var $loginForm = $('#loginForm');
var actionUrl = $loginForm.attr('action');
$loginForm.attr('action', actionUrl + window.location.hash);
});
Fragments (the part of the URL after the #) are not necessarily sent to the server-side by the browser. They are for client-side usage only (navigating to a specific location in the document, JavaScript support).
RFC 2396 section 4.1:
When a URI reference is used to perform a retrieval action on the
identified resource, the optional fragment identifier, separated from
the URI by a crosshatch ("#") character, consists of additional
reference information to be interpreted by the user agent after the
retrieval action has been successfully completed. As such, it is not
part of a URI, but is often used in conjunction with a URI.
(emphasis added)
Therefore, the URL scheme you came up with will not work reliably unless you change the # to another character. Alternatively, you could use JavaScript to transfer the information from the fragment in an input that will be reliably passed back to the server. But do note that solution will only work if JavaScript is enabled in the browser, so it is (also) not a 100% reliable solution that will work with all clients.
Either way, using a URL without a fragment is a more reliable approach and IMO a better design choice if you expect that part to be interpreted by the server.
I would remove ugly URL's from your application all together.
This article will walk you through removing ugly URL's in a asp.net-mvc project. It will also ensure that you have your RouteConfig.cs setup correctly.
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/806500/Getting-started-with-AngularJS-and-ASP-NET-MVC-P

Match full url in backbone

I'm looking for solution to invoke backbone action for particular route in my app.
I know that it's possible to match url like:
localhost:3000/#posts/1
But what if I need to match url like:
localhost:3000/posts/1
Opt-in to the new HTML history API / pushState, e.g.:
Backbone.history.start( { pushState : true } );
Depending on your application, you may want to take other steps as well, e.g.:
Note that using real URLs requires your web server to be able to correctly render those pages, so back-end changes are required as well.
http://backbonejs.org/#History

Codeigniter _remap function

Please help I want to use first URI segment into my CodeIgniter website.
Like when I open these url they opens my profile:
http://www.facebook.com/buddyforever
or
http://www.myspace.com/zarpio
How can I do this with CodeIgniter? I checked _remap function but first coming controller how to hide controller?
You can do this using the URL routing of codeigniter...
If you want your URL to be http://www.mydomain.com/zarpio and you want it to refer to your_controller, then do the following.
/config/routes.php
$route['(.*)'] = "your_controller/$1"; // Now, `zarpio` will be passed to `your_controller`
You can access it in your controller like this...
$my_name = $this->uri->rsegment(2);
However I do not suggest this way of configuring URLs. A better way would be...
$route['users/(.*)'] = "your_controller/$1";
This way, you're just renaming your controller name your_controller to users.
If you want to access profile of a user, you can do it like this...
$route['users/profile/(.*)'] = "another_controller/method/$1";
$route['users/(.*)'] = "your_controller/$1";
Consider the order of routing. Since you wrote users/(.*) in your route, it will match users/zarpio as well as users/profile/zarpio, and route both of them to your_controller/$1, which in the case of profile will give you a 404 page not found error. That is why you need to write users/profile/(.*) before users/(.*) in your routing configuration.
More information in codeigniter URI class documentation

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