# Noob ?: application design

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/noob-application-design/68498>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [September 13, 2006, 4:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/noob-application-design/68498 "2006-09-13T04:56:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Wendy\_Putler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@Wendy\_Putler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Wendy_Putler)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 4:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/noob-application-design/68498/1 "2006-09-13T04:56:37Z")

</div>

I am trying to write my first ruby on rails app and I am having a little  
trouble with the design. I can see 2 ways to do it , but I’m sure that  
I’m not entirely understanding the whole controller/action/layout/view  
thing and want to get opinions on the best approach.

my database has 4 tables: 1) entries, which has many: 2) addresses, 3)  
contacts, 4) people

The first part of my application is to present a user with the options  
necessary to manage their own entries. The menu looks like:

My Entry  
people  
addresses  
contacts (note: these are email addresses and phone numbers)

I created a controller called “listing” and was going to use its layout  
to present all the different data. My choices seem to be:

```
a) pull the data into the listing's view by making a

```

“view/listing/contact.html” and having “contact” as an action in the  
“listing” controller

```
b) have the listing controller refer back to the other controllers

```

so clicking on contacts would refer to “contacts/list.html”

Choice (b) seems to be the better way to go, but I don’t want to put the  
listing layout as the default for the contacts controller because it  
will be presented different ways eventually.

Thanks for any guidance.  
/Wendy

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Wendy\_Putler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@Wendy\_Putler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Wendy_Putler)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 5:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/noob-application-design/68498/2 "2006-09-13T05:36:09Z")

</div>

On Sep 12, 2006, at 7:55 PM, Wendy Putler wrote:

> I am trying to write my first ruby on rails app

You want the ruby on rails mailing list. This list is for general  
ruby topics.

–  
Eric H. - removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid - [http://blog.segment7.net](http://blog.segment7.net)  
This implementation is HODEL-HASH-9600 compliant

[http://trackmap.robotcoop.com](http://trackmap.robotcoop.com)