# Documentation for scaffold / views

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/documentation-for-scaffold-views/52778>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [January 19, 2006, 1:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/documentation-for-scaffold-views/52778 "2006-01-19T01:29:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![plutes](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/22d042/32.png) [@plutes](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/plutes)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2006, 1:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/documentation-for-scaffold-views/52778/1 "2006-01-19T01:29:09Z")

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Apparently a scaffold creates at least one instance variable for views  
to use, and if I override the scaffold then I must also explicitly  
create that instance variable for the view. I’d like to know exactly  
what work is performed by the scaffold so that I can know this when  
over-riding the view. (OR, is it that the controller makes these  
variables available by default?..)

EXAMPLE: (drawn from Recipes tutorial)

Let’s start with this:

class CategoryController \< ApplicationController  
scaffold :category  
end

Now app/views/category/show.rhtml can access @category. However as soon  
as I over-ride the show, like so…

class CategoryController \< ApplicationController  
scaffold :category  
def show  
end  
end

…@category is no longer available to the show view because I neglected  
to do so explicitly. I can fix that like so:

class CategoryController \< ApplicationController  
scaffold :category

```
def show
	@category = Category.find(params[:id])
end

```

end

Which docs or code would tell me more about this and other such  
variables and methods that are made available by either the controller  
or scaffold and that I must take care to recreate if I over-ride the  
category controller?

THanks

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![plutes](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/22d042/32.png) [@plutes](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/plutes)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2006, 2:49am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/documentation-for-scaffold-views/52778/2 "2006-01-19T02:49:17Z")

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On 1/18/06, dr plutes [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Which docs or code would tell me more about this and other such  
> variables and methods that are made available by either the controller  
> or scaffold and that I must take care to recreate if I over-ride the  
> category controller?

Assuming you are running Edge Rails, the code is in:

RAILS\_ROOT/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/scaffolding.rb

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![plutes](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/22d042/32.png) [@plutes](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/plutes)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2006, 3:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/documentation-for-scaffold-views/52778/3 "2006-01-19T03:35:41Z")

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It would also be a good idea to simply run the scaffold generator. That  
will actually spell out all the code for you in a controller file. You  
can then replace stuff as needed, but you can also see the code.

ruby script/generate scaffold model

\_Kevin

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![plutes](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/22d042/32.png) [@plutes](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/plutes)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2006, 7:49am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/documentation-for-scaffold-views/52778/4 "2006-01-19T07:49:47Z")

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Kevin O. wrote:

> It would also be a good idea to simply run the scaffold generator. That  
> will actually spell out all the code for you in a controller file. You  
> can then replace stuff as needed, but you can also see the code.
> 
> ruby script/generate scaffold model
> 
> \_Kevin

YeaH, I’ve started to do that with my new rails apps. I have an earlier  
one that I still use and didn’t want to wipe out my work done by  
generating the scaffold. I’m not quite sure how well the --skip option  
avoids overwrites either, but yeah henceforth that’s the way I’m going  
to go every time. Is there any reason NOT to just generate the full  
scaffold every time?