# Confused on how to set up multiple 'category' controllers us

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/confused-on-how-to-set-up-multiple-category-controllers-us/78197>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [December 3, 2006, 11:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/confused-on-how-to-set-up-multiple-category-controllers-us/78197 "2006-12-03T23:05:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rob)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2006, 11:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/confused-on-how-to-set-up-multiple-category-controllers-us/78197/1 "2006-12-03T23:05:39Z")

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I have two controllers - say “food” and “images” (not related to each  
other at all). Each one will have different categories; I’d like to  
access them via /categories/2/food, /categories/2/images, etc.

But obviously that won’t work, will it? How would I go about setting  
it up? The only way I could think of would be giving a different name  
for each category… i.e: /cat\_food/2/food, /cat\_images/2/images… but  
that looks very ugly.

Is there an easier solution?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rob)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 12:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/confused-on-how-to-set-up-multiple-category-controllers-us/78197/2 "2006-12-04T00:09:45Z")

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Wouldn’t it make sense to have:

/food/categories  
/images/categories

?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rob)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 12:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/confused-on-how-to-set-up-multiple-category-controllers-us/78197/3 "2006-12-04T00:21:46Z")

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On 12/3/06, Rob [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> I have two controllers - say “food” and “images” (not related to each  
> other at all). Each one will have different categories; I’d like to  
> access them via /categories/2/food, /categories/2/images, etc.
> 
> But obviously that won’t work, will it?

Nested resources

ActionController::Routing::Routes.draw do |map|  
map.resources :categories do |category|  
map.resources :foods, :images  
end  
end

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rob)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 12:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/confused-on-how-to-set-up-multiple-category-controllers-us/78197/4 "2006-12-04T00:21:46Z")

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On 12/3/06, Pat M. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> ActionController::Routing::Routes.draw do |map|  
> map.resources :categories do |category|  
> map.resources :foods, :images  
> end  
> end

that should be  
category.resources :foods, :images

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rob)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 7:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/confused-on-how-to-set-up-multiple-category-controllers-us/78197/5 "2006-12-04T19:22:07Z")

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How would I use a single category model/table if I need different  
categories for ‘images’ and ‘food’?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rob)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 12:11am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/confused-on-how-to-set-up-multiple-category-controllers-us/78197/6 "2006-12-06T00:11:08Z")

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Polymorphic associations.

[http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/UnderstandingPolymorphicAssociations](http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/UnderstandingPolymorphicAssociations)