# Rails equivalent to J2EE getRequestDispatcher().forward(...) **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [December 12, 2006, 3:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-equivalent-to-j2ee-getrequestdispatcher-forward/79098 "2006-12-12T03:51:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Maurice\_Y](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Maurice\_Y](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Maurice_Y)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 3:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-equivalent-to-j2ee-getrequestdispatcher-forward/79098/1 "2006-12-12T03:51:06Z")
Hello Rails community Is there a Rails equivalent to the J2EE getRequestDispatcher().forward(…) or the getRequestDispatch().include(…), or, say, the PHP @readfile(…) ? In particular, what I would like to do is first authenticate for permission, and if permitted, serve static content. The J2EE forward and include mechanisms allow content to be served without the service URL showing up in the URL bar in the client browser. This means that the original request can contain necessary static content location information, but after permission is ascertained, the full path to the content is assembled and passed only internally within the server. Maurice Y. ---
**Author:** ![Maurice\_Y](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Maurice\_Y](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Maurice_Y)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 5:32am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-equivalent-to-j2ee-getrequestdispatcher-forward/79098/2 "2006-12-12T05:32:43Z")
I think u r asking about redirect\_to Maurice Y. wrote: > Hello Rails community > > Is there a Rails equivalent to the J2EE > getRequestDispatcher().forward(…) or > the getRequestDispatch().include(…), or, > say, the PHP @readfile(…) ? > > In particular, what I would like to do is first authenticate > for permission, and if permitted, serve static content. > The J2EE forward and include mechanisms allow content > to be served without the service URL showing up in the > URL bar in the client browser. This means that the original > request can contain necessary static content location > information, but after permission is ascertained, the full > path to the content is assembled and passed only internally > within the server. > > Maurice Y. ---
**Author:** ![Maurice\_Y](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Maurice\_Y](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Maurice_Y)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 5:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-equivalent-to-j2ee-getrequestdispatcher-forward/79098/3 "2006-12-12T05:39:16Z")
It sounds like you want to do a reverse proxy. I do recall someone on the Rails wiki posting some code to do that. However I’d be hesitant to do it for real unless you had just a few things you wanted to protect/expose. If your Rails app is the main application and you just want to expose some back end static content for authenticated users then the wiki solution should work fine. Any more than that then I’d recommend investigating a real reverse proxy solution and have your apps and content sit behind that and let it take care of authentication. Cheers, John ---
**Author:** ![Maurice\_Y](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Maurice\_Y](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Maurice_Y)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 6:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-equivalent-to-j2ee-getrequestdispatcher-forward/79098/4 "2006-12-12T06:47:24Z")
After seeing the other replies I realize that I misunderstood what you were saying. The talk of URLs made me think the static content was on a different web server. But I think you mean you have static content outside the document root that you want to serve to clients that you first authenticate via your rails app. That’s easier. 🙂 Try send\_file, > **[ActionController::Streaming](https://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionController/Streaming.html#M000072)** > > Allows views to be streamed back to the client as they are rendered. By default, Rails renders views by first rendering the template and then the layout. ---
**Author:** ![Maurice\_Y](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Maurice\_Y](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Maurice_Y)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 2:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-equivalent-to-j2ee-getrequestdispatcher-forward/79098/5 "2006-12-13T02:41:25Z")
Selvaraj Thanks for your response… Maurice ---
**Author:** ![Maurice\_Y](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Maurice\_Y](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Maurice_Y)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 6:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-equivalent-to-j2ee-getrequestdispatcher-forward/79098/6 "2006-12-12T06:03:17Z")
On 12/11/06, Maurice Y. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > The J2EE forward and include mechanisms allow content > to be served without the service URL showing up in the > URL bar in the client browser. This means that the original > request can contain necessary static content location > information, but after permission is ascertained, the full > path to the content is assembled and passed only internally > within the server. > > Maurice Y. A pretty close equivalent of this would be render\_component, but components add significant overhead and are slated to be deprecated. ## – Kent > **[DATANOISE.COM](https://www.datanoise.com)** > > DATANOISE.COM - Contact us for any business inquiries