# Manual route redundancy with .:format (REST from scratch) **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [June 13, 2007, 9:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/manual-route-redundancy-with-format-rest-from-scratch/106756 "2007-06-13T21:22:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![stephanie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@stephanie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/stephanie)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 9:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/manual-route-redundancy-with-format-rest-from-scratch/106756/1 "2007-06-13T21:22:19Z")
I am building an RESTful search application in Rails. Unfortunately I can’t take advantage of map.resources routing because the application has no models (it communicates with a SOAP service). So I am building a REST architecture from scratch. I have 5 custom routes to emulate RESTful nesting of resources. However, I have to duplicate every entry to be able to catch whether or not the resource is requested with a format. So I have to have 10 route entries… map.connect ‘parent/:parentid/child/:childid.:format’, :controller =\> ‘child’, :action =\> ‘show’, :conditions =\> {:method =\> :get} map.connect ‘parent/:parentid/child/:childid’, :controller =\> ‘child’, :action =\> ‘show’, :conditions =\> {:method =\> :get} … Does anybody have any suggestions on how I can set this up so I don’t repeat myself? Cheers, Stephanie ---
**Author:** ![stephanie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@stephanie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/stephanie)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 9:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/manual-route-redundancy-with-format-rest-from-scratch/106756/2 "2007-06-13T21:30:23Z")
On 6/13/07, stephanie [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I am building an RESTful search application in Rails. Unfortunately I > can’t take advantage of map.resources routing because the application > has no models (it communicates with a SOAP service). So I am building > a REST architecture from scratch. map.resources is not tightly bound to models (or the naming convention for controllers, as it happens) map.resources :wibbles, :controller =\> ‘something\_arbitrary’ your something\_arbitrary\_controller.rb can do whatever it wants - it’s _your_ code. HTH, Trevor ## – Trevor S. [http://somethinglearned.com](http://somethinglearned.com) ---
**Author:** ![stephanie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@stephanie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/stephanie)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 10:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/manual-route-redundancy-with-format-rest-from-scratch/106756/3 "2007-06-13T22:01:26Z")
Thanks for the reply. I used map.resources and it worked fine until I began nesting my resources. The syntax for nesting map.resources does not seem to work without models. The issue I have with map.resources is it creates several routes which aren’t applicable to my application. For instance, I have a few controllers which should only be accessible with a GET since they are results from a web service. The POST, PUT, DELETE + new and edit are not needed. -Stephanie ---
**Author:** ![stephanie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@stephanie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/stephanie)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 10:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/manual-route-redundancy-with-format-rest-from-scratch/106756/4 "2007-06-13T22:17:30Z")
On 6/13/07, stephanie [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Thanks for the reply. I used map.resources and it worked fine until I > began nesting my resources. The syntax for nesting map.resources does > not seem to work without models. The issue I have with map.resources I’m not sure how it wouldn’t work without models - as I said, map.resources has nothing to do with models really. I’ll hazard a guess tho: is it something like you want /foo (foo\_controller) and /foo/bar (bar\_controller)? If that’s what you’re talking about, then /foo is a map.resource (note the singular). So unless what I’ve said above (or what _you_ said below) explains why it doesn’t work for you, maybe you could expand on this a bit? > is it creates several routes which aren’t applicable to my > application. For instance, I have a few controllers which should only > be accessible with a GET since they are results from a web service. > The POST, PUT, DELETE + new and edit are not needed. Yeah, I can understand why you wouldn’t want them. I guess it’s a tradeoff between the convenience of map.resources with a controller that only has index/show methods vs the extra (and un-used) routes and url helpers. If the extra routes and helpers really offend you then you could whip up a little helper or two that generates routes the way you want - after all, that’s what map.resources is (see resources.rb in the rails source). HTH, Trevor ## – Trevor S. [http://somethinglearned.com](http://somethinglearned.com) ---
**Author:** ![stephanie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@stephanie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/stephanie)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 10:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/manual-route-redundancy-with-format-rest-from-scratch/106756/5 "2007-06-13T22:07:28Z")
stephanie wrote: > Thanks for the reply. I used map.resources and it worked fine until I > began nesting my resources. The syntax for nesting map.resources does > not seem to work without models. The issue I have with map.resources > is it creates several routes which aren’t applicable to my > application. For instance, I have a few controllers which should only > be accessible with a GET since they are results from a web service. > The POST, PUT, DELETE + new and edit are not needed. I’m curious why this would be a problem? If you don’t define the corresponding methods in your controller you should be fine? Or am I missing something? – Cheers, - Jacob A. ---
**Author:** ![stephanie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@stephanie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/stephanie)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 11:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/manual-route-redundancy-with-format-rest-from-scratch/106756/6 "2007-06-13T23:27:42Z")
Thanks, this discussion has been really helpful. I am not sure why it didn’t work when I nested it. Perhaps it has to do with mapping associations in the resources.rb. It was awhile ago, so there might have been singular issue. At this point I think I’ve decided I want to implement my own routes. I might refer to resources.rb to create my own helper. Rails map.resources is a great template for how I’d want to do RESTful routes 95% of the time. However, there are times when the conventions breakdown for a particular resource-oriented service. -Stephanie