\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [March 6, 2009, 4:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-map-root-to-point-to-a-static-html-file-in-public-dir/162135 "2009-03-06T04:20:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1
**Author:**  [@bagadoughnuts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bagadoughnuts)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 4:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-map-root-to-point-to-a-static-html-file-in-public-dir/162135/1 "2009-03-06T04:20:08Z")
Hi all,
I’m trying to get map.root to point to a static html file in the public
directory. I can’t just have index.html since I’m doing subdomains and
any index.html file in there will be used as the actual page displayed.
Basically I can point to my subdomain roots just fine, but I need to
find a way to point map.root to a specific html file. For example,
something like this: map.root :url =\> ‘homepage.html’
That example doesn’t work obviously.
Any input would be greatly appreciated. If you need any more info,
please let me know! Thanks.
-Tony
---
**Author:**  [@bagadoughnuts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bagadoughnuts)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-map-root-to-point-to-a-static-html-file-in-public-dir/162135/2 "2009-03-06T16:22:31Z")
On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 7:20 PM, Tony T.
[removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:
> I’m trying to get map.root to point to a static html file in the public
> directory. I can’t just have index.html since I’m doing subdomains and
> any index.html file in there will be used as the actual page displayed.
Sorry, missing something here –
What’s the difference between using static file “index.html” and static
file “homepage.html”?
–
Hassan S. ------------------------ removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid
---
**Author:**  [@bagadoughnuts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bagadoughnuts)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-map-root-to-point-to-a-static-html-file-in-public-dir/162135/3 "2009-03-06T17:54:52Z")
On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 7:37 AM, Tony T.
[removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:
> What I want is to have my subdomain root (ex. [user.app.com](http://user.app.com)) to point to
> the user login page (which I currently have working) and the domain root
> (ex. [app.com](http://app.com)) to have a typical welcome/signup index page. This index
> page is going to be 100% static so I’d prefer to just have it as a file
> (say homepage.html) in the public directory. I realize I could get this
> working by creating a ‘page’ controller and view and then direct
> map.root to that specific controller/view but I think cutting down on
> unnecessary rails calls would be best.
Perhaps someone else will chime in with an alternative, but I think
fighting this convention will be more trouble than its worth 🙂
–
Hassan S. ------------------------ removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid
---
**Author:**  [@bagadoughnuts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bagadoughnuts)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-map-root-to-point-to-a-static-html-file-in-public-dir/162135/4 "2009-03-06T16:37:57Z")
Hassan S. wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 7:20 PM, Tony T.
> [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:
>
> > I’m trying to get map.root to point to a static html file in the public
> > directory. I can’t just have index.html since I’m doing subdomains and
> > any index.html file in there will be used as the actual page displayed.
>
> Sorry, missing something here –
>
> What’s the difference between using static file “index.html” and static
> file “homepage.html”?
>
> –
> Hassan S. ------------------------ removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid
Hi Hassan,
Rails automatically picks up ‘index.html’ as the root page for the site.
Whether it’s a subdomain (ex. [user.app.com](http://user.app.com)) or the actual domain
([app.com](http://app.com)), if the ‘index.html’ is present then it is picked up as the
root.
What I want is to have my subdomain root (ex. [user.app.com](http://user.app.com)) to point to
the user login page (which I currently have working) and the domain root
(ex. [app.com](http://app.com)) to have a typical welcome/signup index page. This index
page is going to be 100% static so I’d prefer to just have it as a file
(say homepage.html) in the public directory. I realize I could get this
working by creating a ‘page’ controller and view and then direct
map.root to that specific controller/view but I think cutting down on
unnecessary rails calls would be best.
Any help is appreciated, thanks!
-Tony
---
**Author:**  [@bagadoughnuts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bagadoughnuts)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-map-root-to-point-to-a-static-html-file-in-public-dir/162135/5 "2009-03-06T18:26:14Z")
Hassan S. wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 7:37 AM, Tony T.
> [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:
>
> > What I want is to have my subdomain root (ex. [user.app.com](http://user.app.com)) to point to
> > the user login page (which I currently have working) and the domain root
> > (ex. [app.com](http://app.com)) to have a typical welcome/signup index page. This index
> > page is going to be 100% static so I’d prefer to just have it as a file
> > (say homepage.html) in the public directory. �I realize I could get this
> > working by creating a ‘page’ controller and view and then direct
> > map.root to that specific controller/view but I think cutting down on
> > unnecessary rails calls would be best.
>
> Perhaps someone else will chime in with an alternative, but I think
> fighting this convention will be more trouble than its worth 🙂
>
> –
> Hassan S. ------------------------ removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid
It’s starting to look that way! Hopefully there’s someone that knows of
a good quick solution. Thanks for the reply though, I appreciate it.
-Tony
---
**Author:**  [@bagadoughnuts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bagadoughnuts)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-map-root-to-point-to-a-static-html-file-in-public-dir/162135/6 "2009-03-06T18:27:44Z")
On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 8:53 AM, Hassan S.
\ wrote:
> > map.root to that specific controller/view but I think cutting down on
> > unnecessary rails calls would be best.
>
> Perhaps someone else will chime in with an alternative, but I think
> fighting this convention will be more trouble than its worth 🙂
>
> –
> Hassan S. ------------------------ removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid
Hi, when someone goes to [app.com](http://app.com), you would like it to go to the
homepage.html. Thus, you can do one of the following:
a) Apache
```
i) Update the following in your httpd.conf file:
DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.php homepage.html
ii) Upload the file (i.e. homepage.html) to public directory of
```
your
Rails application.
```
Note: This should do the job for you.
```
b) Rails Caching
```
i) Turn page caching on for a view template (i.e.
```
homepage.html.erb)
and
```
ii) update you map.root
map.root :controller => "index", :action => "homepage"
Note: This will cache the static content (i.e. homepage.html)
```
within
your public folder. Thus, it will be served by
Apache or the web server that you’re using.
In short, the standard way of providing the root page of a web site is
to
use an index.[php|html|htm|…] but feel free to use one
of the methods above to achieve your result.
Good luck,
-Conrad
---
**Author:**  [@bagadoughnuts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bagadoughnuts)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 6:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-map-root-to-point-to-a-static-html-file-in-public-dir/162135/7 "2009-03-06T18:42:19Z")
Conrad T. wrote:
> In short, the standard way of providing the root page of a web site is
> to
> use an index.[php|html|htm|…] but feel free to use one
> of the methods above to achieve your result.
>
> Good luck,
>
> -Conrad
FANTASTIC! Thanks a lot for the detailed post.
-Tony