Generating CRUD interface automagically

Rails
1

When I browse to http://localhost:3000/feeds I expect rails to
“automagically” present a CRUD interface because I’ve done this with a
previous rails (tutorial) project. It’s like I’m missing a rake
command,
or a scaffold or migration command. I think that what presents the
view would be an action? The action uses a controller?

However, I’m not sure and that’s a bit of a shot in the dark.

Instead of the expected CRUD interfact to the table “feeds” I get the
following error:

Routing Error

no route found to match “/feeds” with {:method=>:get}

The title of this page is “Action Controller: Exception caught,” which
indicates that my intuition/vague recollection about this being related
to an action is on target – but I’m not positive.

Here’s what I’m doing to generate the above error:

thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $
thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $
thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $
thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $ mysql --user=root
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 8
Server version: 5.0.44-log Gentoo Linux mysql-5.0.44

Type ‘help;’ or ‘\h’ for help. Type ‘\c’ to clear the buffer.

mysql>
mysql> show databases;
±-------------------+
| Database |
±-------------------+
| information_schema |
| feed_on_feeds |
| mysql |
| test |
±-------------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> create database straw_development;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> quit
Bye
thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $ ruby straw.rb
create
create app/controllers
create app/helpers
create app/models
create app/views/layouts
create config/environments
create components
create db
create doc
create lib
create lib/tasks
create log
create public/images
create public/javascripts
create public/stylesheets
create script/performance
create script/process
create test/fixtures
create test/functional
create test/integration
create test/mocks/development
create test/mocks/test
create test/unit
create vendor
create vendor/plugins
create tmp/sessions
create tmp/sockets
create tmp/cache
create tmp/pids
create Rakefile
create README
create app/controllers/application.rb
create app/helpers/application_helper.rb
create test/test_helper.rb
create config/database.yml
create config/routes.rb
create public/.htaccess
create config/boot.rb
create config/environment.rb
create config/environments/production.rb
create config/environments/development.rb
create config/environments/test.rb
create script/about
create script/breakpointer
create script/console
create script/destroy
create script/generate
create script/performance/benchmarker
create script/performance/profiler
create script/process/reaper
create script/process/spawner
create script/process/inspector
create script/runner
create script/server
create script/plugin
create public/dispatch.rb
create public/dispatch.cgi
create public/dispatch.fcgi
create public/404.html
create public/500.html
create public/index.html
create public/favicon.ico
create public/robots.txt
create public/images/rails.png
create public/javascripts/prototype.js
create public/javascripts/effects.js
create public/javascripts/dragdrop.js
create public/javascripts/controls.js
create public/javascripts/application.js
create doc/README_FOR_APP
create log/server.log
create log/production.log
create log/development.log
create log/test.log
cd straw
create db/migrate
create db/migrate/001_feeds.rb
exists db/migrate
create db/migrate/002_categories.rb
(in /home/thufir/rubyCode/straw)
(in /home/thufir/rubyCode/straw)
== Feeds: migrating

– create_table(:feeds)
→ 0.0294s
== Feeds: migrated (0.0300s)

== Categories: migrating

– create_table(:categories)
→ 0.0097s
== Categories: migrated (0.0103s)

  exists  app/controllers/
  exists  app/helpers/
  create  app/views/straw
  exists  app/views/layouts/
  exists  test/functional/

dependency model
exists app/models/
exists test/unit/
exists test/fixtures/
create app/models/feed.rb
create test/unit/feed_test.rb
create test/fixtures/feeds.yml
create app/views/straw/_form.rhtml
create app/views/straw/list.rhtml
create app/views/straw/show.rhtml
create app/views/straw/new.rhtml
create app/views/straw/edit.rhtml
create app/controllers/straw_controller.rb
create test/functional/straw_controller_test.rb
create app/helpers/straw_helper.rb
create app/views/layouts/straw.rhtml
create public/stylesheets/scaffold.css
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
http://localhost:3000/feeds
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
=> Booting WEBrick…
=> Rails application started on http://0.0.0.0:3000
=> Ctrl-C to shutdown server; call with --help for options
[2007-11-27 14:34:25] INFO WEBrick 1.3.1
[2007-11-27 14:34:25] INFO ruby 1.8.6 (2007-09-24) [i686-linux]
[2007-11-27 14:34:25] INFO WEBrick::HTTPServer#start: pid=8040
port=3000
127.0.0.1 - - [27/Nov/2007:14:34:35 PST] “GET /feeds HTTP/1.1” 404 619

  • → /feeds
    [2007-11-27 14:34:45] INFO going to shutdown …
    [2007-11-27 14:34:45] INFO WEBrick::HTTPServer#start done.
    thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $
    thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $ mysql --user=root
    Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
    Your MySQL connection id is 12
    Server version: 5.0.44-log Gentoo Linux mysql-5.0.44

Type ‘help;’ or ‘\h’ for help. Type ‘\c’ to clear the buffer.

mysql> show tables from straw_development;
±----------------------------+
| Tables_in_straw_development |
±----------------------------+
| categories |
| feeds |
| schema_info |
±----------------------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> quit
Bye
thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $
thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $ cat straw.rb
#kludgy and brittle, but runs without errors on gentoo
#may or may not work on windows
#assumes MySQL is installed

why doesn’t http://localhost:3000/feeds bring up the db?

require ‘fileutils’

FileUtils.rmtree ‘straw’
system(“rails straw”)

FileUtils.cd(‘straw’, :verbose => true)

FileUtils.rm ‘config/database.yml’, :force => true

database_yml = File.open(‘config/database.yml’, ‘w’)

database_yml.puts "
development:
adapter: mysql
database: straw_development
username: root
password:
host: localhost
socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
test:
adapter: mysql
database: straw_test
username: root
password:
host: localhost
socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
production:
adapter: mysql
database: straw_production
username: root
password:
host: localhost
socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock"

database_yml.close

system(“script/generate migration feeds”)

FileUtils.rm ‘db/migrate/001_feeds.rb’, :force => true

_001_feeds = File.open(‘db/migrate/001_feeds.rb’, ‘w’)

_001_feeds.puts "
class Feeds < ActiveRecord::Migration

    def self.up
            create_table :feeds do |table|
                    table.column :title, :string
                    table.column :location, :string
                    table.column :category_id, :integer
            end
    end

    def self.down
            drop_table :feeds
    end

end"

_001_feeds.close

##########categories

system(“script/generate migration categories”)

FileUtils.rm ‘db/migrate/002_categories.rb’, :force => true

_002_categories = File.open(‘db/migrate/002_categories.rb’, ‘w’)

_002_categories.puts "
class Categories < ActiveRecord::Migration

    def self.up
            create_table :categories do |table|
                    table.column :title, :string
                    table.column :parent_id, :integer
                    table.column :category_id, :integer
            end
    end

    def self.down
            drop_table :categories
    end

end"

_002_categories.close

system(“rake db:migrate VERSION=0”)
system(“rake db:migrate”)

system(“script/generate scaffold feed straw”)

start the WEBrick server

puts “@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@”
puts “\t\t\thttp://localhost:3000/feeds”
puts “@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@”

system(“script/server”)
thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $
thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $ cat /etc/gentoo-release
Gentoo Base System release 1.12.9
thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $
thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $ date
Tue Nov 27 14:35:44 PST 2007
thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $

thanks,

Thufir

2

I’m not entirely sure why it’s broken, but this appears to be cause,
however I’m not clear as to what the solution is:

thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $
thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $ cat straw/config/routes.rb
ActionController::Routing::Routes.draw do |map|

The priority is based upon order of creation: first created ->

highest priority.

Sample of regular route:

map.connect ‘products/:id’, :controller => ‘catalog’, :action =>

‘view’

Keep in mind you can assign values other than :controller

and :action

Sample of named route:

map.purchase ‘products/:id/purchase’, :controller =>

‘catalog’, :action => ‘purchase’

This route can be invoked with purchase_url(:id => product.id)

You can have the root of your site routed by hooking up ‘’

– just remember to delete public/index.html.

map.connect ‘’, :controller => “welcome”

Allow downloading Web Service WSDL as a file with an extension

instead of a file named ‘wsdl’

map.connect ‘:controller/service.wsdl’, :action => ‘wsdl’

Install the default route as the lowest priority.

map.connect ‘:controller/:action/:id.:format’
map.connect ‘:controller/:action/:id’
end
thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $
thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $ date
Tue Nov 27 16:11:03 PST 2007
thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $

thanks,

Thufir

3

Rails doesn’t “automagically” make an interface for you. Perhaps what
you’re looking for is something like "script/generate scaffold
" "script/generate scaffold_resource " or
ActiveScaffold.

4

Thufir wrote:

When I browse to http://localhost:3000/feeds I expect rails to
“automagically” present a CRUD interface because I’ve done this with a
previous rails (tutorial) project. It’s like I’m missing a rake
command,
or a scaffold or migration command. I think that what presents the
view would be an action? The action uses a controller?

However, I’m not sure and that’s a bit of a shot in the dark.

The rails command makes your new rails project in a folder.

CD into your new project (a folder rails_apps) and do a scaffold
command, for each model and controller you want, which does the CRUD of
model, controller, and the views. :slight_smile:

don’t forget the database table for a model (if you are doing this)
should have a field called ‘id’ and is auto incrementened and a primary
key field.

some of these other dudes are better at this then me. read what they
write.

5

On Nov 27, 4:34 pm, Ryan [email protected] wrote:

Rails doesn’t “automagically” make an interface for you. Perhaps what
you’re looking for is something like “script/generate scaffold
” “script/generate scaffold_resource ” or ActiveScaffold.

According to the screenshots and tutorial at <http://
developer.apple.com/tools/rubyonrails.html> it does create a CRUD
interface (at least that’s my take on it).

Thank you for the scaffold information, I’ll try it :slight_smile:

-Thufir

6

You can also add:

scaffold :model

to the top of the controller (:model being the name of the model you
want the crud interface for). I believe this is the magic you are
referring to. Just be aware that this form of scaffolding is going away
in rails 2.0 in favor of the scaffold generator the others have posted.

-Bill

7

That was really frustrating, but now it works. I don’t fully
understand it, but at least it gives me the expected results :slight_smile:

I can go to http://localhost:3000/feeds and enter data into the
feeds table, and go to http://localhost:3000/categories and enter
data into the categories table! I have no idea how it really works,
nor do I have any idea as to how to do inheritance, mixins, one-to-
many relationships, nor much of anything else.

For me, the default interface is fine for now :slight_smile:

For the record I just had my scaffold generation off:

thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $
thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $ cat straw.rb
require ‘fileutils’
require “mysql”

dbname = “straw_development”
m = Mysql.new(“localhost”, “root”, “”)
r = m.query(“DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS #{dbname}”)
r = m.query(“CREATE DATABASE #{dbname}”)
m.select_db(dbname)
m.query(“CREATE TABLE dummy
(
id integer)”)
m.close

FileUtils.rmtree ‘straw’
system(“rails straw”)
FileUtils.cd(‘straw’, :verbose => true)

################################################

FileUtils.rm ‘config/database.yml’, :force => true
database_yml = File.open(‘config/database.yml’, ‘w’)
database_yml.puts "
development:
adapter: mysql
database: straw_development
username: root
password:
host: localhost
socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
test:
adapter: mysql
database: straw_test
username: root
password:
host: localhost
socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
production:
adapter: mysql
database: straw_production
username: root
password:
host: localhost
socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock"

database_yml.close

##############################################

system(“script/generate migration feeds”)
system(“script/generate migration categories”)

##################################################

FileUtils.rm ‘db/migrate/001_feeds.rb’, :force => true
_001_feeds = File.open(‘db/migrate/001_feeds.rb’, ‘w’)
_001_feeds.puts "
class Feeds < ActiveRecord::Migration

    def self.up
            create_table :feeds do |table|
                    table.column :title, :string
                    table.column :location, :string
                    table.column :category_id, :integer
            end
    end

    def self.down
            drop_table :feeds
    end

end"
_001_feeds.close

################################################

FileUtils.rm ‘db/migrate/002_categories.rb’, :force => true
_002_categories = File.open(‘db/migrate/002_categories.rb’, ‘w’)
_002_categories.puts "
class Categories < ActiveRecord::Migration
def self.up
create_table :categories do |table|
table.column :parent_id, integer
table.column :title, text
end
end

    def self.down
            drop_table :categories
    end

end"
_002_categories.close

########################################3

system(“rake db:migrate VERSION=0”)
system(“rake db:migrate”)

##########################################

system(“script/generate scaffold feed”)
system(“script/generate scaffold category”)

start the WEBrick server

puts “@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@”
puts “\t\t\thttp://localhost:3000/feeds”
puts “@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@”

system(“script/server”)
thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $

thanks,

Thufir

8

On Wed, 28 Nov 2007 11:04:23 +1030, Ryan wrote:

Rails doesn’t “automagically” make an interface for you. Perhaps what
you’re looking for is something like "script/generate scaffold
" "script/generate scaffold_resource " or
ActiveScaffold.

What I ended up doing was "script/generate scaffold " once for
each model (I have two tables). This gives CRUD access to the flat
tables. I suppose that "script/generate scaffold "
is used for relationships?

thanks,

Thufir

9

I fixed the scaffold command(s), phew!

pretty neat, a decent interface for data entry. I’m kinda torn, I
want to do some one-to-many relations, see how polymorphism works in
rails, etc, etc. Another part of me wants to work on what was the
impetus for this whole thing: an RSS aggregator.

In any event, here’s what I have, and I can say that it works:

thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $
thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $ cat straw.rb
require ‘fileutils’
require “mysql”

dbname = “straw_development”
m = Mysql.new(“localhost”, “root”, “”)
r = m.query(“DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS #{dbname}”)
r = m.query(“CREATE DATABASE #{dbname}”)
m.select_db(dbname)
m.query(“CREATE TABLE dummy
(
id integer)”)
m.close

FileUtils.rmtree ‘straw’
system(“rails straw”)
FileUtils.cd(‘straw’, :verbose => true)

################################################

FileUtils.rm ‘config/database.yml’, :force => true
database_yml = File.open(‘config/database.yml’, ‘w’)
database_yml.puts "
development:
adapter: mysql
database: straw_development
username: root
password:
host: localhost
socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
test:
adapter: mysql
database: straw_test
username: root
password:
host: localhost
socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
production:
adapter: mysql
database: straw_production
username: root
password:
host: localhost
socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock"

database_yml.close

##############################################

system(“script/generate migration feeds”)
system(“script/generate migration categories”)

##################################################

FileUtils.rm ‘db/migrate/001_feeds.rb’, :force => true
_001_feeds = File.open(‘db/migrate/001_feeds.rb’, ‘w’)
_001_feeds.puts "
class Feeds < ActiveRecord::Migration

    def self.up
            create_table :feeds do |table|
                    table.column :title, :string
                    table.column :location, :string
                    table.column :category_id, :integer
            end
    end

    def self.down
            drop_table :feeds
    end

end"
_001_feeds.close

################################################

FileUtils.rm ‘db/migrate/002_categories.rb’, :force => true
_002_categories = File.open(‘db/migrate/002_categories.rb’, ‘w’)
_002_categories.puts "
class Categories < ActiveRecord::Migration
def self.up
create_table :categories do |table|
table.column :prnt_num, :integer
table.column :title, :string
end
end

    def self.down
            drop_table :categories
    end

end"
_002_categories.close

########################################3

system(“rake db:migrate VERSION=0”)
system(“rake db:migrate”)

##########################################

system(“script/generate scaffold feed”)
system(“script/generate scaffold category”)

start the WEBrick server

puts “@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@”
puts “\t\t\thttp://localhost:3000/feeds”
puts “\t\t\thttp://localhost:3000/categories”
puts “@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@”

system(“script/server”)
thufir@arrakis ~/rubyCode $

thanks,

Thufir