As my understanding on nested resources, on edge Rails, should not
link_to 'User posts', #user.posts
point to
/users/:id/posts
?
The routes.rb file contains
map.resources :users, :has_many => :posts
If this is not the default behavior, can it be accomplished doing something else?
Along the same lines as Rishav:
link_to "User Posts", [#user, :posts]
Here's an explanation from my blog.
Really early on in Rails, you would write routes like this:
redirect_to :controller => "posts", :action => "show", :id => #post.id
What this would do is dutifully redirect to the show action inside the PostsController and pass along the id parameter with a
value of whatever #post.id returns. Typical 302 response.
Then Rails 1.2 came along and allowed you to use routing helpers, like this:
redirect_to post_path(#post)
And the people rejoiced.
This would do effectively the same thing. post_path here would build a route using the #post object that would look something
like /posts/1 and then redirect_to would send back a 302 response to that route and the browser would follow it.
Then later versions (I can't remember which one), allowed syntax like this:
redirect_to #post
And the people rejoiced a second time.
Magic, but not really
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
While this seems like magic, it's not. What this is doing is actually very, very neat. The redirect_to method, much like its cousins link_to and form_for all use a common method to build URLs, called url_for. The url_for method takes many different
varieties of objects, such as strings, hashes or even instances of models, like in the example above.
What it does with these objects then, is quite neat. In the case of the redirect_to #post call above, it inspects the #post
object, sees that it is an object of the Post class (we assume, anyway) and checks to see if that object has been persisted in a
database somewhere by calling persisted? on it.
By "persisted", I mean that a Ruby object has a matching record in the database somewhere. The persisted? method in Active Record is implemented like this:
def persisted?
!(new_record? || destroyed?)
end
If the object wasn't created through a call such as Model.new then it won't be a new record, and if it hasn't had the destroy method called on it won't be
destroyed either. If both of these cases are true, then that makes the object has most likely been persisted to the database in the form of a record.
If it has been persisted, then url_for knows that this object can be found
somewhere, and that the place it can be found is most likely under a method called post_path. So it calls this method, and passes
in the to_param value of this object which is usually the id.
In short, it's effectively doing this:
#{#post.class.downcase}_path(#post.to_param)
Which comes out to being this:
post_path(1)
And when that method is called you would get this little string:
"/posts/1"
Lovely!
This is called polymorphic routing. You can pass an object to methods like redirect_to, link_to and form_for and it will
attempt to work out the correct URL of what to use.
The form of form_for
Now, when you're coding Rails you may have used form_for like this a very long time ago:
<% form_for #post, :url => { :controller => "posts", :action => "create" } do |f| %>
Of course, with advancements in Rails you could simplify it to this:
<% form_for #post, :url => posts_path do |f| %>
Because the form is going to default to having a POST HTTP method and therefore a request to posts_path is going to go to the
create action of PostsController, rather than the index action, which is what would result if it were a GET request.
But why stop there? Why not just write this?
<%= form_for #post do |f| %>
Personally, I see no reason not to... if it's something as simple as this. The form_for method uses url_for underneath, just like
redirect_to to work out where the form should go. It knows that the #post object is of the Post class (again, we assume) and it
checks to see if the object is persisted. If it is, then it will use post_path(#post). If it's not, then posts_path.
The form_for method itself checks to see if the object passed in is persisted also, and if it is then it'll default to a PUT HTTP
method, otherwise a POST.
So this is how form_for can be flexible enough to have an identical syntax on both a new and edit view. It's becoming more and
more common these days for people to even put their whole form_for tags into a single partial and include it in both the new and
edit pages.
A more complex form
So form_for is fairly simple for when you pass a normal object, but what happens if you pass an array of objects? Like this, for
instance:
<%= form_for [#post, #comment] do |f| %>
Well, both url_for and form_for have you covered there too.
The url_for method detects that this is an array and separates out each part and inspects them individually. First, what is this
#post thing? Well, in this case let's assume it's a Post instance that is persisted and has the id of 1. Second, what is this
#comment object? It's a Comment instance that has not yet been persisted to the database.
What url_for will do here is build up the URL helper method piece by piece by placing each part in an array, joining it into a routing method and then calling that routing method with the necessary arguments.
First, it knows that the #post object is of the Post class and is persisted, therefore the URL helper will begin with post. Second, it knows that the #comment object is of the Comment class and is not persisted, and therefore comments will follow post in the URL helper build. The parts that url_for now knows about are [:post, :comments].
The url_for method combines these individual parts with an underscore, so that it becomes post_comments and then appends _path
to the end of that, resulting in post_comments_path. Then it passes in just the persisted objects to the call to that method, resulting in a call like this:
post_comments_path(#post)
Calling that method results in this:
"/posts/1/comments"
Best part? form_for will still know to use POST if the #comment object is not a persisted object, and PUT if it is. A good
thing to remember is that the form_for is always for the last object specified in the array. The objects prior to it are just its
nesting, nothing more.
The more objects that are added, the more times url_for will do the hard yards and build the path out... although I recommend that
you keep it to just two parts.
A symbolic form
Now that we've covered using an array containing objects for form_for, let's take a look at another common use. An array containing
at least one Symbol object, like this:
<%= form_for [:admin, #post, #comment] do |f| %>
What the url_for method does here is very simple. It sees that there's a Symbol and takes it as it is. The first part of the
url will simply be the same as the symbol: admin. The URL that url_for knows of at this point is just [:admin].
Then url_for goes through the remaining parts of the array. In this case, let's assume both #post and #comment are persisted
and that they have the ids of 1 and 2 respectively. Same classes as before. url_for then adds post to the URL that it's building,
and comment too, resulting in [:admin, :post, :comment].
Then the joining happens, resulting in a method of admin_post_comment_path, and because both #post and #comment are persisted here,
they're passed in, resulting in this method call:
admin_post_comment_path(#post, #comment)
Which (usually) turns into this path:
/admin/posts/1/comments/2
You can use the array form of polymorphic routing with the redirect_to, link_to and form_for methods. There's probably other
methods that I'm not remembering right now that can do it too... it's generally anything in Rails that would normally take a URL.
There's no need to build your URLs in any Rails version greater-than 2 using hashes; that's pretty old school.
Instead, experiment with your new knowledge of polymorphic routing and use it to the best of your advantage.
This should work:
link_to "User Posts", user_posts_path(#user)
for more details visit:
http://guides.rubyonrails.org/routing.html
link_to uses url_for which uses polymorphic_url.
polymorphic_url:
builds the helper method, using the class name of active record objects
calls the helper with the active record objects as arguments
Therefore, as others said, you should use:
link_to 'User Posts', [#user, :posts]
for which the path is:
user_posts_path(#user)
^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^
1 2 3
class of #user because it is an active record
convert to string because symbol
add as call argument because active record
That builds the good helper method.
This is how to link to a nested resource in the latest Rails:
link_to 'Destroy Comment', post_comment_path(comment.post, comment)
Note: This is in a partial so there isn't a #.
Related
<%= link_to "Profile", #user %>
# => Profile
if i use the above code replacing "Profile" with "Category" and #user with #category/#subcategory what do I then point the html link a href etc to?
Check the documentation for this method here.
The first parameter of the link_to method is the displayed text.
Secondly, you can pass in a single instance of an object which will generate a link to the objects #show action.
You may however pass a link explicitly (most common in my opinion).
This can be done by using the Rails path-helpers (user_path(#user)) or by passing in a string.
In your example, if you exchange #user with #category it would link to the categories #show action instead (Assuming you have a Category model and #category isn't nil.
Again, have a look at the documentation of the link_to method and get familiar with it.
i'v been trying to resolve this error for the past 5 hours and I'm gonna burn my computer if I can't solve this.
undefined method `pushes_path' for #<#:0x007f859d605250> this is the error code I'm getting but i don't understand why.
this is my index.html.erb file inside of the interaction
<%= simple_form_for #push do |f| %>
<%= f.input :payload, as: :text %>
<%= f.input :segment, as: :radio_buttons %>
<%= submit_tag "start the campaign" %>
<% end %>
and this is my interaction controller
class InteractionController < ApplicationController
def index
#push =Push.new
end
end
Push is my table in the database and i'll get the inputs and write them in the database to use them for later one.
and this is my routes file
devise_for :partners
get 'home/index'
get 'segmentation/index'
get 'interaction/index'
root to: "home#index"
i really don't know why its looking for pushes_path, what am i doing wrong?
form_for
The problem you have is that your form_for method is going to try and generate a route based off your #path object. And as such, if you don't have a path created for it, you'll receive the error you're getting:
:url- The URL the form is to be submitted to. This may be represented
in the same way as values passed to url_for or link_to. So for example
you may use a named route directly. When the model is represented by a
string or symbol, as in the example above, if the :url option is not
specified, by default the form will be sent back to the current url
(We will describe below an alternative resource-oriented usage of
form_for in which the URL does not need to be specified explicitly).
The bottom line is that as Rails is object orientated, its built around the assumption that you'll have routes set up to handle the creation of individual objects.
Every time you use form_for, Rails will attempt to construct your routes from your object -- so if you're trying to do the following, it will treat the routes as photo_path etc:
#app/views/pushes/new.html.erb
<%= form_for #push do |f| %>
...
<% end %>
--
Fixes
As #mandeep suggested, there are several fixes you can employ to get this to work:
Firstly, you can just create a route for your push objects:
#config/routes.rb
resources :pushes
Secondly, as you're using a different controller, you'll want to do the following:
#config/routes.rb
resources :interactions
#app/views/pushes/new.html.erb
<%= form_for #push, url: interaction_path do |f| %>
...
<% end %>
This will route your form submission to the interactions controller, rather than the pushes controller that you'll get by default!
Objects
Something to consider when creating Rails-based backends is the object-orientated nature of the framework.
By virtue of being built on Ruby, Rails is centered on objects - a term for a variable, which basically encompasses much more than just a piece of data. Objects, in the case of Rails, are designed to give the application:
Once you understand this, the entire spectrum of Rails functionality becomes apparent. The trick is to realize that everything you do in Rails should be tied to an object. This goes for the controllers too:
--
Ever wondered why you call resources directive in your routes, for a controller? It's because you're creating a set of resourceful routes based for it:
Do you see how it's all object orientated?
This gives you the ability to define the routes for specific controllers etc. The most important thing to note is how this will give you the ability to determine which routes / controller actions your requests should go
--
There's nothing wrong in using the controller setup as you have - the most important thing is to ensure you're able to define the custom URL argument, as to accommodate the non-object based structure
In your index action you have
def index
#push =Push.new
end
and your form has
<%= simple_form_for #push do |f| %>
so your form is looking for /pushes with post verb or pushes_path and you don't have that route in your routes.rb file so to fix this you need to add this in routes.rb:
resources :pushes
Update:
when you add resources :push rails basically creates seven different routes for you. One of which is
POST /pushes pushes#create create a new push
and if you look at the html generated by your form it would be something like:
<form action="/pushes" class="new_push" id="new_push" method="post">
// your fields
</form>
notice the action and verb so when you submit your form your routes are checked for them and since you didn't define them in your routes you were getting this error
And how will i be able to use the params i m getting from this form with this new resource addition?
Your form will take you to pushes_controller create action so first of all you'll have to define them. You can access them simply by params[:pushes] in your controller action but since you want to create a new record so you'll have to permit those attributes, checkout strong parameters
If you are using rails >= 4 then you can do
class PushesController < ApplicationController
def create
#push =Push.new(push_params)
if #push.save
redirect_to #push
else
render 'interaction/index'
end
end
private
def push_params
params.require(:push).permit(:attributes)
end
end
If you are using rails < 4 then instead of permitting these attributes(because strong parameters feature came from rails 4) you'll have to tell rails that these attributes are accessible by writing this in your pushes.rb
attr_accessible :attribute_name
Why it is assuming that its pushes controller?Because of the Push.new creation?
That's because if you look at your index action #push = Push.new so #push contains a push object with nil values(as you have just initialized it) so this is where rails magic comes, rails automatically tries to figure out url of your form and since your #push is only an initialized variable so rails takes you to create action for it. For details you should checkout rails polymorphic urls If you want your form to go to interaction_controller or some other url then you'll have to specify the url option for it
<%= form_for #push, url: "your_url_for_custom_method" %>
// other fields
<% end %>
And in the end you should really read docs
I'm trying to link the input of a form to a specific action in my rails app.
Currently if I go to www.myapp.com/check/:idNumber, I'll be able to trigger the action just fine (which means routes is setup properly?). This action is basically a function call to a ruby/rails script with the parameter "idNumber" being passed to it. If the function is successful, it would return a newly created "Person" object and nil otherwise. This is different than the standard new operation as it determines the the attributes based on some information that it obtained from a database somewhere else.
Rake routes does give me the following:
check /check/:idNumber(.:format) person#check {:id=>/\d+/}
What I'm having trouble implementing is the form itself.
<%= form_tag("/check", :method => "get") do %>
<%= text_field_tag(:idNumber) %>
<% end %>
Controller action:
def check
regCheck = RegCheck.new
#person = regCheck.check_id(params[:idNumber])
if #person.name == nil
redirect_to root_path
end
end
submitting the form above would bring me to myapp.com/check?utf8=✓&idNumber=1234 instead. Can someone tell me what am I doing wrong?
I believe that using the check_path helper that is generated from the routes file is your best bet.
The form should look like this then.
<%= form_tag(check_path) do %>
<%= text_field_tag(:idNumber) %>
<% end %>
Rails forms can be finicky, especially when trying to build really customized forms.
This line
= form_for [#object]
Determines where the form goes, as well as the object that is being implemented. If you want to route the form to a different place, you can user the :url option. This options determines the path of the form, however you must keep in mind that the method is determined by the #object. If it is a new object, the method will be POST, an existing object will use a PUT method.
Let's suppose you want to update an existing object, but you want to send in data for a new object belonging to the existing object. That would look like
= form_for [#object], :as => #child_object, :url => my_optional_custom_path do |f|
# etc...
This generates a form sending a PUT request to the custom url (or the update path for #object if no custom url is supplied. The PUT request is sent with the parameter params[:child_object].
Hopefully this helps!
Best,
-Brian
I don't think it's possible the way you're trying.. The URL for the form is created before the user inputs any data.. So you need to remove the :idNumber from your routing..
If you do you get the following route:
check /check(.:format) person#check
Because the regex is removed now, you need to do this in you're controller:
def check
# Make sure ID is digits only
idNumber = params[:idNumber].gsub(/[^\d]/, '')
regCheck = RegCheck.new
#person = regCheck.check_id(idNumber)
if #person.name == nil
redirect_to root_path
end
end
You're form is allright, but you may want to use check_path like TheBinaryhood suggests..
If you really want it to be check/:idNumber you may also be able to submit the form to another action and redirect it to the right path from there..
all, I'm trying to get a custom action to work with a put method: in the
in _post.html.erb i have a link_to statement:
<%= link_to 'End now', post, :method => :put, :action => endnow %>
routes.rb contains:
resources :posts do
member do
put :endnow
end
and posts_controller.rb looks like:
class PostsController < ApplicationController
helper_method :endnow
[.. code for create, edit, destroy, etc ..]
def endnow
puts params
end
end
rake routes's relevant line looks like:
endnow_post PUT /posts/:id/endnow(.:format) posts#endnow
However, the action endnow helper doesn't run when clicking on this link.
Strangely, it does run with an index action (which i can tell from the puts command.
Of course, eventually the code for endnow will update #post, but for now, it just doesn't run properly.
Maybe i'm going about this the wrong way - all I'm trying to achieve is to update #post upon clicking the link to that post, and before showing it.
Any ideas / Alternatives?
Why not use the route helper method provided to you? Change your link to
<%= link_to 'End now', endnow_post_path(#post), method: :put %>
Things you're doing wrong:
If you want to specify the :action, use the Symbol for the action (you're missing a colon). :action => endnow should be action: :endnow
I will assume you have a #post instance variable you're passing from your controller to your action. You should be using that instead of post (unless you do in fact have a local post variable you're omitting from your code)
You are using endnow as an action; you should remove the helper_method :endnow line in your controller because it's not something you want to/should be accessing from your view.
This can all be avoided by using the route helper (for endnow_post you'd append _path to get the local route path: endnow_post_path), and pass in your #post as an argument.
Because you're trying to do a PUT request, you must make sure you have something like jquery-ujs included in your asset pipeline to convert these links to form submissions behind the scenes; browsers don't support PUT via the click of a link on their own.
As for why you're getting the template error when you get your link_to working, Rails is telling you that you need to create a app/views/posts/endnow.html.erb file. Your action has only puts params which does not terminate execution, leaving Rails to assume you still are trying to render some endnow.html.erb template.
Are there other ways to do what you're trying to do (change a single attribute of a specific model)? Sure. Are there better ways? That's pretty subjective; it may not be the most RESTful way, but it's arguably easier to deal with (if for example there are very specific authorization rules to check before updating the attribute you are modifying in endnow. Does the way you've started fleshing out work? Absolutely.
Finally, as a bump in the right direction, after you fix your link_to and remove the the helper_method as I have described above, your endnow action might look like this:
def endnow
post = Post.find!(params[:id])
post.some_attribute_here = some_new_value_here
post.save
redirect_to :root and return # <- this line sets a redirect back to your homepage and terminates execution, telling rails to do the redirect and **not** to render some endnow.html.erb file
end
Many helper methods, such as redirect_to, link_to, and url_for, can take an ActiveRecord object as a parameter instead of a hash that specifies the controller and action. I've seen the parameter passed different ways in different documentation. It sometimes gets passed as a symbol, sometimes as an instance variable, and sometimes as a local variable.
I'm confused about how the different parameter styles get expanded to return urls. I know that following REST conventions should create a url constructed of a controller and action but am unsure when Rails needs a specific parameter style to construct that url. Please help me understand the use cases for passing the ActiveRecord object as a symbol, an instance variable, or a local variable. Are there different requirements based on the method call? Or are there underlying differences in url construction?
Here are some examples:
From the API docs:
link_to "Profile", #profile
redirect_to post
<%= url_for(#workshop) %>
<%= form_for :person do |f| %> (this is described as the “generic #form_for”)
From the Ruby on Rails Guides:
<%= link_to 'New book', new_book_path %>
redirect_to(#book)
form_for(#article)
From the Rails 3 Way:
'link_to' "Help", help_widgets_path, :popup => 1
redirect_to post
url_for(timesheets_path)
form_for offer do |f|
Note: Upon further research, it seems that form_for is able to accept a local variable in the case where the calling view template passes a :locals hash as a parameter. The keys are the locals that can be used in the partial and the values are the instance variables from the template. Is that the correct understanding?
You can pass objects to link_to and url_for
You can also pass an object to a path helper
Both #post and post are objects. #post is an instance variable, and post is either a local variable or a method that will return a post
The only "weird" one is the form_for :post variety. This is old school Rails syntax, and will change this to the form_for #post syntax under the hood.