Custom controllers displaying a page from radiant

Ruby Apps Radiant CMS
1

I would love to just be able to call methods in my own custom controller
to
display the CMS content, but do things like form handling / database
interaction using rails proper and not have to write behaviors to add
functionality. I have successfully written my own behavior based off of
the
mailer behavior to submit form data to a model, but the whole time what
I
really wanted to do was just display a certian page from the CMS with my
own
forms / validation / etc happening as rails code.

I played around with a new controller on my dev version calling render
with
an injected page part, but could not get it to work without committing
the
page part to the database first. I have since deleted it, but the code
was
similar to this (sorry, I dont have the exact code, but I think you can
get
the idea)

def index
@page = Page.find(1)
custom_content = render_partial ‘some_partial’
@page.page_parts << PagePart.new( :name=>‘form’,
:content=>custom_content )
process_page # this is the part I really cant remember, it was
three
lines or so of code
end

Is there anyone from the development team that could give me a hint as
to
how to do this, or convince me that custom controllers are a really bad
idea
and I should just write behaviors ? I understand fully there are lots
of
things that can do wrong with modifying the page real-time, but it would
be
nice to just do my forms in rails with validations, activerecord
relationships, etc. etc.

Debugging behaviors is a real pain because I keep having to re-start my
web
server to see new results (even in development mode). Maybe if someone
can
tell me how to fix just this problem I’d be a little more happy to write
behaviors.

-mike

2

def index
@page = Page.find (1)
custom_content = render_partial ‘some_partial’
@page.page_parts << PagePart.new( :name=>‘form’,
:content=>custom_content )
process_page # this is the part I really cant remember, it was three
lines or so of code
end

If I understand correctly you are trying to decompose your “behavior”
into a model, and a controller. I like the fact that you are thinking
outside the box. You are right. Certain things could be done more
easily in a controller.

As part of the “corex” branch, I have done a few experiments of
similar kinds: the goal is to create a separation of model and
controller logic.

Here are couple observations I have made:

A hypothetical SiteController#process_page() method may look so:

class SiteController < ApplicationController
…

def process_page
if @page.layout
content_type = @page.layout.content_type.to_s.strip
@response.headers[‘Content-Type’] = content_type unless
content_type.empty?
end
headers.each { |k,v| @response.headers[k] = v }
@response.body = render
end
…
end

It seems the biggest challenge with this approach is the coordination
of the dispatcher process. Consider a situation where someone would
like to overwrite this process_page() method in a subclass.

Example:

class MySiteController < SiteController
def process_page
…
super
end
end

Now how does this MySiteController get called. Clearly we must first
find the page by the given url [ find_page_by_url() ] before we can
make the decision what controller would be appropriate to handle the
page request. That’s a problem I am facing. I am not quite sure how to
solve the issue of finding the page (which is a model) and directing
the program flow to the controller (i.e. SiteController or a subclass
thereof).

Clearly, it would be beneficial to be able to write your own
controller. However, how does the dispatcher know which controller
goes with what page? … I am still contemplating on this…

–
Alexander H.
http://www2.truman.edu/~ah428

3

You are correct. I would like a simple way to display radiant pages,
but
also a simple way to run my own rials code without having to bother with
coding up a behavior. Coming into this project what I really wanted was
a
simple CMS for my users to put in content, but still leverage my rails
knowledge to create functionality for the site. I already know how to
get
forms, email, calendars, etc. working in rails. I love the way the
behaviors extend radiant and I think they are great for giving a
‘non-coder’
type admin a way to add functionality, but I think there are also going
to
be a lot of admins who already know rails and are going to be a bit
frustrated having to learn the radiant codebase just to add simple
functionality to their radiant driven site (also debugging behaviors is
slow
due to server restarts).

What id like to do is call my controller directly using routes (or
default
routes), then render the page by calling radiant classes / methods. The
radiant page dispatcher would not even come into play until after the
custom
controller runs (if I understand you correctly).

In other words URL ://mysite.com/contact
would call the radiant page controller and render the page, but
//mysite/forms/contact
would call my forms controller and render the page using the radiant
layout
of choice and then render and forms I decide in my controller by passing
in
partial(s).
//mysite/forms/contact_create
would use my rails code to create the contact entry in the model, then
could
redirect back to a radiant page
with the confirmation details

my forms controller would handle the interaction with the models, do the
validation, etc. In my perfect world, all I need from the radiant code
is
way to display a page with a custom partial, see the contact_create
method
below:

class FormsController < ApplicationController

def index
contact_new
end

def contact_new
@page = Page.find_by_url (‘contact/form_holder_page’) # this is a
hidden radiant page ??
custom_content = render_partial (‘contact_form’) # this form has a
placeholder to display validation errors
@page.render_with_custom_page_part( :page_part => custom_content ) #
this would be brilliant!! :slight_smile:
end

def contact_create
@contact = Contact.new( params[:contact] )
if @contact.save
flash[:notice] = ‘Contact info info saved.’
redirect_to ‘/contact/thanks’
else
flash[:error] = ‘Contact info could not be saved.’
render :action => ‘contact_new’
end
end

end

thanks for the swift reply. I am on vacation next week, but then I look
forward to installing and checking out the corex branch, I like where it
is
going …

Mr out of the box, Mike

4

What id like to do is call my controller directly using routes (or default
routes), then render the page by calling radiant classes / methods. The
radiant page dispatcher would not even come into play until after the custom
controller runs (if I understand you correctly).

That is exactly what John is working on. He will be back next week.
But I recall he is not planning until next month to get his advanced
plugin system rolled out. Nevertheless your feedback is important.

On 10/13/06, orff [email protected] wrote:

functionality to their radiant driven site (also debugging behaviors is slow
would call my forms controller and render the page using the radiant layout
below:
custom_content = render_partial (‘contact_form’) # this form has a
else

 process_page   # this is the part I really cant remember, it was

similar kinds: the goal is to create a separation of model and
if @page.layout
It seems the biggest challenge with this approach is the coordination
end
controller. However, how does the dispatcher know which controller
to

I played around with a new controller on my dev version calling render
@page = Page.find (1)
how to do this, or convince me that custom controllers are a really bad
server to see new results (even in development mode). Maybe if someone
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–
Alexander H.
http://www2.truman.edu/~ah428