Call action from an action

Rails
1

I have an index action that shows a list of data.

def index
  # go get data,
  # setup some instance vars
  # render view - display data in table
end

URL: /orders/

I would like to have another action that sets up a few instance vars and
then calls the index action, which then takes over from there and goes
and gets data, displays the data in a table.

archive > sets up vars > runs index action code > renders index
action view

I was assuming that I could just do:

def archive
  #setup instance vars
  render :action => "index"
end

URL: /orders/;archive

But this just renders the index actions view, and doesn’t actually
execute the index action code.

Just wondering if it’s possible to have an action do a bit of setup,
then hand things over to another action?

Thanks,

Dave

2

You could call ‘index’ like a method from the other action, but then
you’ll still need to do the render in the other action. So…

def archive
#setup instance vars
index #go run the code in ‘index’
render :action => ‘index’ #render the template
end

3

I would like to have another action that sets up a few instance vars and
render :action => “index”
end

URL: /orders/;archive

But this just renders the index actions view, and doesn’t actually
execute the index action code.

Just wondering if it’s possible to have an action do a bit of setup,
then hand things over to another action?

If it were me, I’d separate that common functionality out into a
protected
method and have both index and archive call it directly or via a
before_filter.

This way when you realize that you need to do things a little different
b/n index and archive it’s a bit easier and clearer as to what you’re
affecting.

-philip

4

Jon G. wrote:

You could call ‘index’ like a method from the other action, but then
you’ll still need to do the render in the other action. So…

def archive
#setup instance vars
index #go run the code in ‘index’
render :action => ‘index’ #render the template
end

That’s what I thought would work, but I tried that and for some reason
it gives me:

Template is missing
missing template /user/admin/stuff/config/…/etc/etc/archived.rhtml

So it’s still trying to get to the archived view.

5

Philip H. wrote:

If it were me, I’d separate that common functionality out into a
protected
method and have both index and archive call it directly or via a
before_filter.

Good deal. I created a private “listme” action and stuck the common code
in there.

For some reason, now when I call:

def archived
#make some instance vars
listme
render :action => ‘index’
end

I don’t get the missing template error. Totally strange.

Any clue as to why I was getting the template error (see post above).

Thanks for the suggestion - learn something new every day!

Dave

6

Bill W. wrote:

Hi David,

David C. wrote:

def archive
missing template /user/admin/stuff/config/…/etc/etc/archived.rhtml

Is that a typo? archive vs. archived?

Bill

Yeah, typo. It’s still looking for the archive template, although I’ve
called render on the index action.

7

Hi David,

David C. wrote:

def archive
missing template /user/admin/stuff/config/…/etc/etc/archived.rhtml

Is that a typo? archive vs. archived?

Bill

8

Thanks for the suggestion - learn something new every day!
I believe when you call the the index action from archived index does an
implicit “render…” and uses the current action name for the
template…
which is archived.

I suspect if you created a blank “archived.rhtml” you’d then get a
double
rendering error.

But I could be totally wrong on both accounts as I haven’t really looked
into it :slight_smile: