# Newbie... is this possible? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [May 7, 2007, 6:43am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-is-this-possible/103499 "2007-05-07T06:43:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![blunte](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/b782af/32.png) [@blunte](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/blunte)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2007, 6:43am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-is-this-possible/103499/1 "2007-05-07T06:43:44Z")
Howdy. I’m new at Rails, but I think I understand the concept. Now I’m trying to map that to what I’ve done in the past with JSP/Java/Tomcat, and I have a specific problem I need to solve. A client likes to have his registered users have their own portal pages, like “[thesite.com](http://thesite.com/someuser)”. In JSP I just added logic to the 404 handling such that if the path name “someuser” was a registered user in the database, then it would generate a page appropriate for them. Then, since this was a referral-based system (in terms of membership-benefits), if the visitor signed up on someuser’s page, someuser would get credit for it. How, in Rails, might such a thing be done? Would it be a hack like what I did on Tomcat in JSP, with 404 handling? Or is there some other facility for _faking_ pages that don’t exist? An example or other explanation of similar systems would be wonderful. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![blunte](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/b782af/32.png) [@blunte](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/blunte)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2007, 7:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-is-this-possible/103499/2 "2007-05-07T07:09:45Z")
blunte wrote: > A client likes to have his registered users have their own portal I think you’d basically do it the same way. Map an action as the last-resort action and in there try to look up a user for the path. If you don’t find a user /then/ you do the 404. Read up on routes.rb… in fact, the comments in the generated routes.rb might be enough. b ---
**Author:** ![blunte](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/b782af/32.png) [@blunte](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/blunte)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2007, 7:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-is-this-possible/103499/3 "2007-05-07T07:15:45Z")
On 5/7/07, Ben M. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > > might be enough. > > b Yes have a look at doing this with routes. I hesitate to provide an actual route, but if you look at the general route map.connect ‘/:controller/:action/:id’ This shows how you can construct a paraeterized url. map.connect ‘/users/:username’, :controller =\> ‘users’, :action =\> ‘blah’ would provide the action in users → blah with the param[:username] There is great docs on the rubysite for making really complex routes. HTH Cheers ---
**Author:** ![blunte](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/b782af/32.png) [@blunte](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/blunte)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2007, 7:22am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-is-this-possible/103499/4 "2007-05-07T07:22:45Z")
In routes: map.connect “:id”, :controller =\> “users”, :action =\> “show” put this last. So all your other controllers take precedent Zach I. → Blog — [http://www.zachinglis.com](http://www.zachinglis.com) → Company — [http://www.lt3media.com](http://www.lt3media.com) → Portfolio — [http://portfolio.zachinglis.com](http://portfolio.zachinglis.com) ---
**Author:** ![blunte](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/b782af/32.png) [@blunte](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/blunte)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2007, 11:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-is-this-possible/103499/5 "2007-05-07T23:30:12Z")
Thanks for the good responses! I’ll look into “routes”.