Custom Actions in Routes.rb

Rails
1

Hi, on rails 2.0.2 i generate a controller with actions Index and New
using:
“script/generate controller Recipe Index New”

I can now access the actions index/new through /recipe/index or /
recipe/new. But if i create a new blank action called delete using:
“def delete
end”

and create the corresponding view for delete action i cannot access it
through /recipe/delete!

I’ve been told that this is because in restful routes i need to
specify the new action delete (even though i never specified the
actions index/new) and i have searched through the api but am still
not clear on how exactly i would add a custom action route to
routes.rb?

2

the action should be named destroy, not delete

if you want to define custom actions you must use something like this

map.resources :name, :member => [“my_action”]
if it runs on a specific member and needs an id
or
map.resources :name, :collection => [“my_action”]
if it’s a more general action (like index) that does not need an id

3

I’ve learned that routes.rb is your friend and a great file to keep open
to see how rails maps everything for you. This will show you how to
access rails built-in futions. Also, Chapter 20 in Agile Web
Development with Rails will help you understand what rails does with the
all important routes in 2.0

4

On 25/02/2008, Evan [email protected] wrote:

and create the corresponding view for delete action i cannot access it
through /recipe/delete!

So: restful routes automatically handles seven controller actions for
you: index, new, create, edit, update, show, and destroy.

index, show, new, and edit are handled as GETs to (respectively)
recipes/
recipes/1
recipes/new
recipes/1/edit

create is handled by a POST to recipes/; update handled by a PUT to
recipes/1; destroy handled by a DELETE to recipes/1.

Whoever said “you should call it destroy”; buzzer sound for you.
#destroy is the method name we use for the end of a DELETE request.
But what if you want a page up front to handle the “are you sure you
want to destroy?” dialogue? That would be a GET to /1/delete (just
like our edit method). So, in our routes file:

map.resources :recipes, :member => {:delete => :get}

will allow you to GET recipes/1/delete with delete_recipe_path . What
this translates as is: I should be able to GET the page “delete” on
any individual recipe. If you wanted to have a new route on top of
every recipe, you could do the following:

map.resources :recipes, :collection => {:list => :get}

which allows you to GET recipes/list with list_recipes_path . This
means: I should be able to GET a list of ALL recipes.

Obviously, this should ONLY be for a page you display. If there’s any
destruction in your action, you’re looking for a DELETE to a recipe
path.

But the way you add extra routes on is through the :collection and
:member hashes in your routes file. Does that help?

If in doubt, type rake routes at the terminal, to see what routes your
app currently supports.

5

Does this mean that for every custom action I define in a controller,
I have to add it in my routes.rb?

What if I had 50 custom actions? …for the sake of hypothetical
argument. This doesn’t seem so dynamic to me.

6

I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure we didnt have to declare all
custom actions in routes.rb in Rails 1.2.x

On Feb 25, 11:13 am, Thorsten M. <rails-mailing-l…@andreas-

7

Ok, I read your articles and I think I’m beginning to understand routes
(will need to read more).

I’m attempting to build a web application that will communicate with
some unix and windows servers and will be running binaries and
executables on those boxes which is why I need to run custom actions.
So this is not just a web site driven by ROR, but more of a full
application. I’m trying to avoid mixing in other languages e.g. CGI
with Perl, Javascript unless I really, really have to.

Ryan B. wrote:

You won’t have 50 custom actions, believe me.

Have a read of
frozenplague.net and
frozenplague.net

On Sun, Mar 16, 2008 at 5:33 PM, trip.tucker [email protected]
wrote:

Does this mean that for every custom action I define in a controller,
I have to add it in my routes.rb?

What if I had 50 custom actions? …for the sake of hypothetical
argument. This doesn’t seem so dynamic to me.

–
Ryan B.
http://www.frozenplague.net
Feel free to add me to MSN and/or GTalk as this email.

8

You won’t have 50 custom actions, believe me.

Have a read of
frozenplague.net and
frozenplague.net

On Sun, Mar 16, 2008 at 5:33 PM, trip.tucker [email protected]
wrote:

Does this mean that for every custom action I define in a controller,
I have to add it in my routes.rb?

What if I had 50 custom actions? …for the sake of hypothetical
argument. This doesn’t seem so dynamic to me.

–
Ryan B.

Feel free to add me to MSN and/or GTalk as this email.