# Questioning My Design

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/questioning-my-design/188148>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 6, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/questioning-my-design/188148 "2010-05-06T15:35:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@dee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dee)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/questioning-my-design/188148/1 "2010-05-06T15:35:48Z")

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Hi All,

I’m writing a web app for a non-profit NGO that helps farmers in a co-  
op plan their crops better to reduce shortages, surpluses and  
unhealthy competition between themselves. Right now, I’m doing  
something that doesn’t feel Rails-ee and want some feedback. Here’s  
the problem.

Here’s the set up: the farmers are Users with a ‘farmer’ role. I want  
to all the farmer to view their account to view their User profile  
(name, phone, email, etc.) as well as their Sales, Purchases, and the  
Crops they are currently managing. (Sales and Purchases are actually  
both Orders handled polymorphically, which might not be important for  
this discussion).

In the view for User#show I have partial that displays some links that  
go back to the Show action but have set a param that gives context to  
which chunk of information the person wants to see, such as:

1. \<%= link\_to 'Profile', user\_path(current\_user, :ui\_selector =\> 'profile') %\>
2. \<%= link\_to 'Sales', user\_path(current\_user, :ui\_selector =\> 'seller') %\>
3. \<%= link\_to 'Purchases', user\_path(current\_user, :ui\_selector =\> 'buyer') %\>
4. \<%= link\_to 'Current Crops', user\_path(current\_user, :ui\_selector =\> 'crops') %\>

You can probably tell where this question is going… Inside the  
controller, User#show I set instance variables based on the value of  
params[:ui\_selector], like thus:

@crop = Crop.new(:user\_id =\> @user.id) if params[:ui\_selector] ==  
‘crops’  
@order = Order.new(:buyer\_id =\> @user.id) if params[:ui\_selector] ==  
‘buyer’  
@order = Order.new(:seller\_id =\> @user.id) if params[:ui\_selector] ==  
‘seller’

Then, also in the view User#show, I show the right stuff based on  
params[:ui\_selector], like this:

\<% if params[:ui\_selector] == ‘profile’ %\>

Name: \<%= @user.name %\>  
 Email: \<%= @user.email %\>  
 Phone: \<%= number\_to\_phone @user.cell %\>

\<% elsif params[:ui\_selector] == ‘seller’ %\>  
\<%= render :partial =\> “sales”, :object =\> @user %\>

\<% elsif params[:ui\_selector] == ‘buyer’ %\>  
\<%= render :partial =\> “purchases”, :object =\> @user %\>

\<% else params[:ui\_selector] == ‘crops’ %\>  
\<%= render :partial =\> “crops”, :object =\> @user %\>

\<% end %\>

The sales, purchases and crops partials set up a table and then  
basically call partials for those classes indexes using @user.sales,  
@user.purchases and @user.crops respectively.

It is all working okay, but alarms go off every time I use logic  
blocks in Rails, like there has got to be a better way, I’m missing  
something obvious. It doesn’t feel very OOP nor DRY but I can’t see  
what I’m missing.

Also, is it bad practice to have the views use the collections of an  
instance variable as I have done here with the partials accessing  
@user.sales, for instance? It seems like I should be setting maybe a  
@sales in the controller, or is the tax on the database the same?  
(Come to think of it, I’ll probably need to move that into the  
controller if I want to use will\_paginate with these.)

Thanks,  
Dee  
P.S. After we get this rolled out in about two-months time, I’ll throw  
it onto github and make it open-source.

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**Author:** ![dee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@dee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dee)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/questioning-my-design/188148/2 "2010-05-06T19:52:51Z")

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On May 6, 2010, at 11:04 AM, Dee wrote:

> Dee  
> Still perfectly RESTful. You’d end up with a url path like:

/user/:id/crops

Which would route to your new ‘crops’ action in the UserController

There’s nothing magical about the typical seven actions: index, new,  
create, show, edit, update, destroy

You’re just adding a few that return a different representation of the  
state of the resources related to a user.

-Rob

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**Author:** ![dee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@dee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dee)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/questioning-my-design/188148/3 "2010-05-06T16:34:56Z")

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On May 6, 2010, at 9:34 AM, Dee wrote:

> (name, phone, email, etc.) as well as their Sales, Purchases, and the  
> Crops they are currently managing. (Sales and Purchases are actually  
> both Orders handled polymorphically, which might not be important for  
> this discussion).
> 
> In the view for User#show I have partial that displays some links that  
> go back to the Show action but have set a param that gives context to  
> which chunk of information the person wants to see, such as:

Perhaps it would be easier if you had different actions/views for each:

map.resources :user, :member =\> { :profile =\> :get, :seller =\> :get,  
:buyer =\> :get, :crops =\> :get }

> 1. \<%= link\_to 'Profile', user\_path(current\_user, :ui\_selector =\> 'profile') %\>

profile\_user\_path(current\_user)

> params[:ui\_selector], like thus:
> 
> @crop = Crop.new(:user\_id =\> @user.id) if params[:ui\_selector] ==  
> ‘crops’

Then have a separate action for each:

def crops  
@crops = @user.crops.current  
end

Assuming that you have an association and named\_scope such as:  
class User  
has\_many :crops  
end  
class Crop  
belongs\_to :user  
named\_scope :current, { :conditions =\> [‘season = ?’,  
season\_for(Date.today)] }  
end

(Of course, I’m assuming that you have a definition of what “Current  
Crops” are somewhere.)

Your links look like you are creating a crop, sale, purchase, or  
profile, but the text seems like you mean to see the current status of  
these things.

> ```
> Email: <%= @user.email %><br />
> 
> ```
> 
> \<% end %\>

You would then have separate views for each action. You can call out  
to a partial if you do have common stuff (such as an order).

> Also, is it bad practice to have the views use the collections of an  
> instance variable as I have done here with the partials accessing  
> @user.sales, for instance? It seems like I should be setting maybe a  
> @sales in the controller, or is the tax on the database the same?  
> (Come to think of it, I’ll probably need to move that into the  
> controller if I want to use will\_paginate with these.)
> 
> Thanks,  
> Dee  
> P.S. After we get this rolled out in about two-months time, I’ll throw  
> it onto github and make it open-source.

Good Luck!

-Rob

Rob B.  
[http://agileconsultingllc.com](http://agileconsultingllc.com)  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

> **[Launch Scout Custom Software Development & Software Consulting](https://launchscout.com/)**
>
> We solve digital problems through custom software development and design for the web—apps, mobile, desktop and devices.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@dee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dee)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 5:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/questioning-my-design/188148/4 "2010-05-06T17:05:23Z")

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Ah ha! That does make sense, Rob! I’ve had similar problems before but  
haven’t considered additional member functions. You are correct in  
assuming that I have those associations and named\_scopes. The “current  
crops” is actually a named scope as is past crops, and more  
collections associated with the User, which I left out for brevity.

By adding these additional members what does that do to its  
RESTfulness?

Thanks,  
Dee

On May 6, 10:32 am, Rob B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)