# Passing hard-coded values to controller **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [May 6, 2009, 9:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/passing-hard-coded-values-to-controller/167274 "2009-05-06T09:41:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cbnewman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/0ea827/32.png) [@cbnewman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cbnewman)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 9:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/passing-hard-coded-values-to-controller/167274/1 "2009-05-06T09:41:16Z")
given the following code snippet: class PatientsController \< ApplicationController … def find @patients = Patient.find(:all, :conditions =\> { :location =\> [params:search\_string] }) end I would like to add a few hard coded links (i.e. show me all the patients in a particular location) This makes sense to me: \<% link\_to “=Hospital 1 census”, {:controller=\>“/ patients”, :action=\>“find”, :search\_string=\>“Hospital 1”} %\> but gives me error “Couldn’t find Patient with ID=find” (The above link generates the URL [example.com/patients/find](http://example.com/patients/find)? search\_string=Hillcrest) I tried playing around with routes.rb, but got nowhere. What am I doing wrong? Thanks, –b ---
**Author:** ![cbnewman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/0ea827/32.png) [@cbnewman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cbnewman)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/passing-hard-coded-values-to-controller/167274/2 "2009-05-06T17:51:47Z")
The way you are receiving parameter is wrong it should be like this @patients = Patient.find(:all, :conditions =\> { :location =\>params [:search\_string] }) GUL ---
**Author:** ![cbnewman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/0ea827/32.png) [@cbnewman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cbnewman)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 8:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/passing-hard-coded-values-to-controller/167274/3 "2009-05-06T20:29:01Z")
On May 6, 8:40 am, big poppa [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > \<% link\_to “=Hospital 1 census”, {:controller=\>“/ > patients”, :action=\>“find”, :search\_string=\>“Hospital 1”} %\> > > but gives me error “Couldn’t find Patient with ID=find” (The above > link generates the URL [example.com/patients/find](http://example.com/patients/find)? > search\_string=Hillcrest) > > I tried playing around with routes.rb, but got nowhere. What am I > doing wrong? In addition to what Gul has said, assuming you have the default map.resources :patients then you need to tell rails about your find action ( take a look at the routing guide at [guides.rubyonrails.org](http://guides.rubyonrails.org) (hint: :collection )) Fred ---
**Author:** ![cbnewman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/0ea827/32.png) [@cbnewman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cbnewman)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 9:07am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/passing-hard-coded-values-to-controller/167274/4 "2009-05-07T09:07:23Z")
Since find is not one of the standard actions, have you included a specific route for patients/find? The default routes generated by map.resources :patients will assume that find is a patient id, expecting to see patients/2 for example. Colin 2009/5/6 big poppa [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![cbnewman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/0ea827/32.png) [@cbnewman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cbnewman)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 11:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/passing-hard-coded-values-to-controller/167274/5 "2009-05-06T23:47:26Z")
sorry, that’s a typo. it appears the way you suggested in my code (it compiles). i’ll look into the routing some more, i was ready to bash my head in last night and couldn’t take it any more… –b ---
**Author:** ![cbnewman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/0ea827/32.png) [@cbnewman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cbnewman)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/passing-hard-coded-values-to-controller/167274/6 "2009-05-07T15:39:55Z")
Having thought further about this I would suggest that you may going about it the wrong way anyway. I think what you are trying to do is select a set of patients for display. The default action for showing a set of patients is the index action, which by default would show all patients and is accessed by [example.com/patients](http://example.com/patients). You could use the URL [example.com/patients?search\_string=Hillcrest](http://example.com/patients?search_string=Hillcrest) (or whatever) and test for the presence of params[:search\_string] in the index method of the controller. Then no special routing is required. Colin 2009/5/7 Colin L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![cbnewman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/0ea827/32.png) [@cbnewman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cbnewman)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/passing-hard-coded-values-to-controller/167274/7 "2009-05-07T21:32:02Z")
thanks for your input and thoughtful reply. I like your proposal and I’ll give it a shot Thanks, –b ---
**Author:** ![cbnewman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/0ea827/32.png) [@cbnewman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cbnewman)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 10:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/passing-hard-coded-values-to-controller/167274/8 "2009-05-07T22:57:22Z")
2009/5/7 big poppa [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > Suppose I wanted to do this. Wouldn’t the syntax be (in config/ > routes.rb) > > map.connect ‘/patients/find’, :controller=\>‘patient’, :action=\>‘find’ Make sure it is before map.resources :patient otherwise this will be seen first and you will get the problem you have described. Also I do not put a leading / when using map.connect but I do not know whether that is an issue or not. So I would put map.connect ‘patients/find’ … Use rake routes to show you the current mapping. Colin ---
**Author:** ![cbnewman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/0ea827/32.png) [@cbnewman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cbnewman)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/passing-hard-coded-values-to-controller/167274/9 "2009-05-07T22:08:36Z")
Suppose I wanted to do this. Wouldn’t the syntax be (in config/ routes.rb) map.connect ‘/patients/find’, :controller=\>‘patient’, :action=\>‘find’ prepended to the standard, scaffold generated map.connect ‘:controller/:action/:id’ map.connect ‘:controller/:action/:id.:format’ –b