# Newbie Q: Why does scaffolding create new on 'new'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [October 7, 2007, 1:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-q-why-does-scaffolding-create-new-on-new/116536 "2007-10-07T01:38:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jazcyk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e56c9b/32.png) [@jazcyk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jazcyk)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 1:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-q-why-does-scaffolding-create-new-on-new/116536/1 "2007-10-07T01:38:14Z")
Hi, Apologies for what is a very basic question, but hopefully someone can help me understand why the following is done in the Rails scaffolding: Scaffolding creates, amongst others, these two methods in a controller: ‘new’ renders the ‘make new x record’ page. And ‘create’ deals with the data sent back from the form on that page. My question is - why does ‘new’ bother to create a new model object at all? It’s not used in the rhtml template, and a new model object is created as another new instance in ‘create’ anyway. Scaffold methods for reference: > def new > @paper = Paper.new > end > def create > @paper = Paper.new(params[:paper]) > if @paper.save > flash[:notice] = ‘Paper was successfully created.’ > redirect\_to :action =\> ‘list’ > else > render :action =\> ‘new’ > end > end Thanks for your insight, apologies again for what I’m assuming is a dumb question… - N ---
**Author:** ![jazcyk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e56c9b/32.png) [@jazcyk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jazcyk)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 2:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-q-why-does-scaffolding-create-new-on-new/116536/2 "2007-10-07T02:12:59Z")
I’m not sure about this (a really new RoR user), but I’d say RoR uses the @paper instance on the View as a container of the inserted form values, thus resending the new information back to the controller (after a Submit action) encapsulated on the object (chech the params[] hash to see how it travels). But I could be wrong, since I’m recently learning this incredible and interesting new framework 😛 On Oct 6, 6:38 pm, Peter L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![jazcyk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e56c9b/32.png) [@jazcyk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jazcyk)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 6:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-q-why-does-scaffolding-create-new-on-new/116536/3 "2007-10-07T06:27:43Z")
Hi Peter Forget about Rails Scaffolding and invest your time to look at Active Scaffold 🙂 CCH > **[Rails... Rails... Rails](http://cch4rails.blogspot.com)** > > Chee Chong Hwa aka CCH, a Malaysian Chief Software Architect blogs on his experiences with Ruby on Rail running on Win2003 Server+Apache 2.26 environment since 2007. Flirted briefly with Ubuntu 9.04 in 2009. Since January 2017, now using RubyMine... On Oct 7, 7:38 am, Peter L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![jazcyk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e56c9b/32.png) [@jazcyk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jazcyk)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 10:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-q-why-does-scaffolding-create-new-on-new/116536/4 "2007-10-07T10:38:06Z")
Peter L. wrote: > My question is - why does ‘new’ bother to create a new model object at > all? It’s not used in the rhtml template, and a new model object is > created as another new instance in ‘create’ anyway. > > Scaffold methods for reference: > > > def new > > @paper = Paper.new > > end Yeah its because the reference is used in the new.rhtml (well actually the \_form.rhtml to be precise) The standard generated form uses methods of the object (in this case Paper) to create the text fields and any error messages that may have occured. i.e. in \_form.rhtml ` <-- error_messages expects a ActiveRecord Object @paper to test for errors --> <%= error_messages_for 'paper' %> Name <-- text_field expects @paper and will use @paper.name fill in the value –> <%= text_field ‘paper’, ‘name’ %> ` Hope that makes sense Luke ---
**Author:** ![jazcyk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e56c9b/32.png) [@jazcyk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jazcyk)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 12:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-q-why-does-scaffolding-create-new-on-new/116536/5 "2007-10-07T12:15:37Z")
> Hope that makes sense It does! Those partials can be sneaky! Thanks for your time. ---
**Author:** ![jazcyk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e56c9b/32.png) [@jazcyk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jazcyk)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 4:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-q-why-does-scaffolding-create-new-on-new/116536/6 "2007-10-07T16:06:58Z")
I dont think this is good advice. I definitely recommend that newbies experiment with the built in scaffolding, to learn the rails conventions and fundamentals. Then, move on, remembering Rails scaffolding, you will probably write your own controllers. Or perhaps pick up a plug in like Active Scaffold (which do I use and like alot, btw) if you want ajaxy tables in your views.