# How to display a welcome page **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [December 25, 2005, 8:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-display-a-welcome-page/51077 "2005-12-25T20:07:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/6de8d8/32.png) [@Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Eden_B)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 8:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-display-a-welcome-page/51077/1 "2005-12-25T20:07:17Z")
Wow, I can’t believe that after a few weeks of playing around with Rails I got stuck on something that seems like it should be really simple. How do I display a default welcome page for visitors who are not logged in and send logged in users to the appropriate controller. I am using the login\_engine and the user\_engine. The two methods I have seen looking at sample code are to stick a http\_refresh in public/index.html or to setup a default route to go to some action controller. What do you suggest? Can I build a conditional route that sends them to a ‘Welcome’ controller if not logged in or the “MyApp” controller if logged in? Does it make sense to build a ‘Welcome’ controller just for the ability to route for it and render content with a view even though there is no real functionality and no model? Thanks for the advice, Eden ---
**Author:** ![Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/6de8d8/32.png) [@Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Eden_B)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 8:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-display-a-welcome-page/51077/2 "2005-12-25T20:55:32Z")
I thumbed through the Agile w/ Rails book recently and it had that worked out using filters… There’s a before\_filter which let’s you establihs a routine to run, we’ll, before other things happed… I think putting it in your application controller gives it global access. There may be other ways to do it - not sure. hth, /Joe ---
**Author:** ![Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/6de8d8/32.png) [@Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Eden_B)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 6:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-display-a-welcome-page/51077/3 "2005-12-26T06:05:21Z")
Joe Tennis wrote: > I thumbed through the Agile w/ Rails book recently and it had that worked > out using filters… There’s a before\_filter which let’s you establihs a > routine to run, we’ll, before other things happed… I think putting it in > your application controller gives it global access. Actually it’s the best way to do, in my opinion. Check this out! [http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/HowToQuicklyDoAuthenticationWithLoginGenerator](http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/HowToQuicklyDoAuthenticationWithLoginGenerator) Best, Tom ---
**Author:** ![Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/6de8d8/32.png) [@Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Eden_B)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 7:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-display-a-welcome-page/51077/4 "2005-12-26T19:25:45Z")
Joe, Tom, Thank you both for the tips. I think I understand what you are suggesting and will probably do something like that for the overall access control in my app. My confusion is embarrassingly much simpler. I want a basic “Welcome to my site” page to show up at: > **[Web Hosting, Domain Name Registration - MyDomain.com](https://www.mydomain.com)** > > Small business web hosting offering additional business services such as: domain name registrations, email accounts, web services, and various small business solutions. All of the routing and filter examples I see involve sending someone to a controller like: [www.mydomain.com/user/login](http://www.mydomain.com/user/login) or [www.mydomain.com/mycontroller/myaction](http://www.mydomain.com/mycontroller/myaction) right away. Is the best way to customize the root level content for my account to edit index.html in the public folder? Will I be able to use my layout and dynamic content (display whether the user is logged in or not)? When I delete index.html, I get an exception that the controller for “/” could not be found. Why can’t I have a top level invisible controller with an unseen index action so that I can pull in dynamic content and my site-wide layouts. I think this must be possible, but I am stuck for now. Thank you again for your help, Eden ---
**Author:** ![Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/6de8d8/32.png) [@Eden\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Eden_B)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 7:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-display-a-welcome-page/51077/5 "2005-12-26T19:31:51Z")
Eden, Take a look @ config/routes.rb In there is an example of how to use the ‘map’ to do just that. # You can have the root of your site routed by hooking up ‘’ # – just remember to delete public/index.html. # map.connect ‘’, :controller =\> “welcome” Chris Nolan.ca [http://kekova.ca/](http://kekova.ca/)