# \*How\* to design a simple app for Rails **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [December 13, 2005, 12:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-design-a-simple-app-for-rails/53252 "2005-12-13T12:55:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ewildgoose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@ewildgoose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ewildgoose)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 12:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-design-a-simple-app-for-rails/53252/1 "2005-12-13T12:55:14Z")
Like many people I am trying to experimenting with writing new apps in Rails and having some teething problems getting my head around how they should be structured to take best advantage for Rails. It’s a question of how to _structure_ the app once you go more complicated than those easy “Todo list” examples (and I do own the Agile books) To illustrate some of the things I am a little unsure about here is a tiny example app: store made up of products which are in categories. Each product has a price and description. Clearly we have model objects for Category and Product OK, so I start out: - Controller called StoreController which has two methods “list\_categories” (takes no params) and “list\_products” which takes a param of category\_id and lists all the products in that category with a pager - Views: list\_categories is the obvious list of categories and clicking on a category takes you to “store/list\_products/xxx”. list\_products has the obvious list of stuff, but also has: ----\> a search box which would refine the list to matching items, ----\> and a toggle link titled “show descriptions” which changes the list from a plain list of items to a list with some description of each item (ie extra stuff) OK, so this is where I start to wonder how to "rails"ify it. Simple thing like the toggle link - should this be directed to some new method in the controller which toggles some session variable on or off and then trying to redirect back to the original URL. Or do we just (via the link\_to method) append a “?show\_descriptions=1” to the current URL and reload? How to handle the search in the same screen. Should this redirect back to the same page with a “?search\_product=xxx” param appended? Is the rails way to have another method in the controller that will have cleaner URLs…? Since this page now looks very like our global search page (that we probably also want) then perhaps the url should change to reflect that? (Note: This is a question about how to structure URLs rather than a question about coding this hypothetical app) What happens if the user goes to “/store/list\_products” with no parameter (assuming it doesn’t make sense for the app to list every product in every category)? I guess in this app it makes sense to _redirect_ to list\_categories (perhaps with some help message)? I would then like to Ajax enable the search and toggle button BUT it is very important that the app still be usable with Links. How would you go about making sure that app remains usable in text-only browsers (and for people with javascript off)? Would this have any impact on how you designed the views and controller in order to divide up the code and make it reusable? Grateful for any thoughts on how _you_ would structure this little app. If the questions seem a little dumb, please realise that the app is just a quick hypothetical playground - I hope the underlying question is sensible though. Thanks Ed W ---
**Author:** ![ewildgoose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@ewildgoose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ewildgoose)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2005, 7:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-design-a-simple-app-for-rails/53252/2 "2005-12-18T19:05:02Z")
On 12/13/05, Ed W [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Like many people I am trying to experimenting with writing new apps in > Rails and having some teething problems getting my head around how they > should be structured to take best advantage for Rails. It’s a question > of how to _structure_ the app once you go more complicated than those > easy “Todo list” examples (and I do own the Agile books) Have you gotten help with these questions yet? > Thanks > > Ed W Sincerely, Tom L. removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [http://AllTom.com/](http://AllTom.com/) ---
**Author:** ![ewildgoose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@ewildgoose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ewildgoose)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2005, 8:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-design-a-simple-app-for-rails/53252/3 "2005-12-18T20:11:21Z")
Ed / Tom, I am having the same difficulties. I have coded PHP for a few years and various other languages. I love the idea of Rails and have purchased the Agile book and the PickAxe. I was so enthused about Rails that I read the Agile book in a couple of days. The walk-through application presents a lot of useful information but, I feel, that the authors should have presented the non-scaffolding approach to beginning a project in later chapters. What is really needed is for someone to write a book that walks through the development of a larger-scale application. I’ve been contemplating going to one of the Rails seminars that walks through the development of BaseCamp but that’s quite a bit of moolah. Now, I know that I will need to learn Ruby to take full advantage of everything that Rails has to offer and I’ve been devoting most of my time to that task. I’ve read the Rails wiki and numerous tutorials, watched the videos and read numerous blogs. I know that a lot of books are in the works and hopefully one of these books will address the real-world approach to developing a larger-scale application with Rails. Am I alone in this confusion about the best starting place for a big application? -Chris ---
**Author:** ![ewildgoose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@ewildgoose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ewildgoose)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 12:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-design-a-simple-app-for-rails/53252/4 "2005-12-19T00:59:51Z")
It is a long fall from the scaffolding into real world apps. Your best bet is to just dive right in and use the #rubyonrails IRC group for support. We’re nice there, cause you know, Matz is nice. Matz is the true programmer and DHH is his prophet. 😉 Mike P. ---
**Author:** ![ewildgoose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@ewildgoose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ewildgoose)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 2:02am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-design-a-simple-app-for-rails/53252/5 "2005-12-19T02:02:54Z")
On Dec 18, 2005, at 6:59 PM, Mike P. wrote: > It is a long fall from the scaffolding into real world apps. Your best > bet is to just dive right in and use the #rubyonrails IRC group for > support. We’re nice there, cause you know, Matz is nice. I have to second that sentiment. Our community is phenomenal! > > > enthused about Rails that I read the Agile book in a couple of > > > walks through the development of BaseCamp but that’s quite a bit > > > approach to > > > developing a larger-scale application with Rails. > > > > > > Am I alone in this confusion about the best starting place for a big > > > application? Ruby was ahead of it’s time when it came out. I think maybe it still is. There are still a lot of sideline critics out there. I think that this is the result of the fact that outside of the tutorials and scaffolding there are concepts in our world that take some mental effort to wrap your head around. MOst people are just not willing to spend two days “figuring it out.” For me it’s because Ruby (and thus Rails) forces you to think different. With concepts like Mixins and code blocks I feel compelled to code more elegantly and expressively. The PickAxe Book is my best friend. I use it a lot more than the Agile Web Dev book. Actually, I refer more to the RoR API than anything for how to do something in Rails. The DevBoi Firefox plugin is invaluable. So, I would suggest study the PickAxe book, lean heavy on the RoR API, and when you get stuck come and join us at #rubyonrails. ## Ciao! Scott aka \ ---
**Author:** ![ewildgoose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@ewildgoose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ewildgoose)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2005, 8:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-design-a-simple-app-for-rails/53252/6 "2005-12-18T20:56:40Z")
I’ve been using Ruby for a few years now (our company built a decent sized web application for a customer before rails ever came out), but I’ve just recently started to work with Rails. Even I had trouble getting my head around Rails when I first looked at it (many months ago). The way I finally jumped over that small learning curve was to just start writting something. Following the ‘todo’ application tutorial didn’t really teach me anything. It’s when I started writting my own application (simple blog with Blogger and MetaWeblog api’s, and a utility to track milage for my motorcycle) that it finally clicked. And once you have something working, make sure you write tests for everything… then refactor everything using the knowledge you’ve gained. No tutorial is going to teach you what you’ll need in order to write a large scale application. Actually writting something, and (more importantly) writting tests for it, will teach you what you need to know. Ken…