# Design doubt- putting a method in the controller, in model

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/design-doubt-putting-a-method-in-the-controller-in-model/79831>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [December 19, 2006, 4:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/design-doubt-putting-a-method-in-the-controller-in-model/79831 "2006-12-19T16:12:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![damaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@damaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/damaris)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 4:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/design-doubt-putting-a-method-in-the-controller-in-model/79831/1 "2006-12-19T16:12:54Z")

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Hi you all,

I have a textarea in a wiki application where users can write things in  
the way “{{property value}}”. These thing will be later transformed in  
Annotations (a table in the DB)  
I’ll do all the scanning of the content and then save these annotations  
in the “def create” and “def edit” of my wiki controller. My question  
is, where should I put this scanning and stuff better, in the wiki  
controller as I was gonna do, in the annotation controller, or in the  
annotation model?

My first though was putting it as a method of the model “Annotation”,  
but is something related with an input from the view, and I think a  
model hasn’t have to manage this. But…if not… the controller will have  
to do all the stuff so… do I have to add any class in between?

Thank you in advance.

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**Author:** ![damaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@damaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/damaris)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 7:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/design-doubt-putting-a-method-in-the-controller-in-model/79831/2 "2006-12-19T19:16:17Z")

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On Tue, Dec 19, 2006 at 04:12:54PM +0100, Damaris F. wrote:

> annotation model?
> 
> My first though was putting it as a method of the model “Annotation”,  
> but is something related with an input from the view, and I think a  
> model hasn’t have to manage this. But…if not??? the controller will have  
> to do all the stuff so??? do I have to add any class in between?

I’m not sure I understand your resistance to putting things in the  
model. Maybe you can think about it this way:

Would you like to be able to do the same kind of insertion in the  
console  
or in another controller, like:

```
    some_model.set_text("{{foo}}")

```

The it should most likely be on the model.

–  
Cheers,

- Jacob A.

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**Author:** ![damaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@damaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/damaris)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 9:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/design-doubt-putting-a-method-in-the-controller-in-model/79831/3 "2006-12-19T21:38:22Z")

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The model must be agnostic. It should accept (require) a specific type  
of  
input and your views / controllers should respect that format. This  
allows  
you to keep your code simple.

User.new() accepts a hash. It just so happens that Rails takes  
parameters  
from a view and stores them as a hash.

I believe this is called “programming to an interface.” That said, Ruby  
does  
make it more interesting by allowing you to determine what was passed  
into  
the method,.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![damaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@damaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/damaris)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 7:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/design-doubt-putting-a-method-in-the-controller-in-model/79831/4 "2006-12-19T19:23:23Z")

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> I’m not sure I understand your resistance to putting things in the  
> model. Maybe you can think about it this way:
> 
> Would you like to be able to do the same kind of insertion in the  
> console  
> or in another controller, like:
> 
> ```
> some_model.set_text("{{foo}}")
> 
> ```
> 
> The it should most likely be on the model.

Um, the thing is that the model will have to “analyze” the data between  
brackets.

What if tomorrow I change the annotation way and there is no more text  
in brackets, but…I dunno…selecting checkboxes? Has the model to  
manage the changes in the app View? has to be aware if the annotations  
are coming to it in form of text in brackets or in checkboxes?

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![damaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@damaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/damaris)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 10:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/design-doubt-putting-a-method-in-the-controller-in-model/79831/5 "2006-12-19T22:06:24Z")

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On Tue, Dec 19, 2006 at 07:23:23PM +0100, Damaris F. wrote:

> Um, the thing is that the model will have to “analyze” the data between  
> brackets.

Yes, that’s what model’s do, they “analyze” or in other ways handle  
data. Some might even say, that the model _is_ the data. The controller  
is simply a way of manipulating the model.

> What if tomorrow I change the annotation way and there is no more text  
> in brackets, but…I dunno…selecting checkboxes? Has the model to  
> manage the changes in the app View? has to be aware if the annotations  
> are coming to it in form of text in brackets or in checkboxes?

If you are really doing the same thing you could either update the model  
to account for an alternative way of setting the same attribute or you  
could make the controller convert the checkbox input into a string for  
your model, though I would probably go for the former in most cases.

–  
Cheers,

- Jacob A.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![damaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@damaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/damaris)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 11:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/design-doubt-putting-a-method-in-the-controller-in-model/79831/6 "2006-12-19T23:35:37Z")

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Bala P. wrote:

> Put it in the application helper module.

Yes, i also thought aboutit, but the applications helpers keep methods  
FOR the view, not FROM the view…am I right?

Thank you all.

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**Author:** ![damaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@damaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/damaris)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 10:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/design-doubt-putting-a-method-in-the-controller-in-model/79831/7 "2006-12-19T22:24:27Z")

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Put it in the application helper module.