# Rails REST resources on the real world (real) **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [December 19, 2007, 6:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-rest-resources-on-the-real-world-real/123681 "2007-12-19T18:41:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rubenfonseca](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@rubenfonseca](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubenfonseca)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 6:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-rest-resources-on-the-real-world-real/123681/1 "2007-12-19T18:41:39Z")
Hi @all! First of all let me congratulate all the team involved on the creation of Rails 2! What an excellent advancement on an advanced framework! I have a question about the “new” RESTful resources. Imagine I use extensively this new approach on a new website. What is the best way to inform my users about the RESTful resources? Is there some kind of automatic generation of documentation? Or am I missing the big picture completely? ## Thank you for your support! Rúben Rúben Fonseca [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) Technical Consultant log \ ## Tel: +351 21 330 42 20 Fax: +351 21 330 42 19 Calçada Marquês de Abrantes, 45 - 3º Dto 1200-718 Lisboa ---
**Author:** ![rubenfonseca](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@rubenfonseca](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubenfonseca)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 12:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-rest-resources-on-the-real-world-real/123681/2 "2007-12-20T00:48:22Z")
What would you need to inform them about? Most of the major changes are in the back end and the only “serious” change I can think off the top of my head is the changing of semi-colon to forward-slash for the action specification on member objects of a Restful resource. On Dec 20, 2007 4:08 AM, Ruben F. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > ## automatic generation of documentation? Or am I missing the big Tel: +351 21 330 42 20 Fax: +351 21 330 42 19 Calçada Marquês de Abrantes, 45 - 3º Dto 1200-718 Lisboa > > > – Ryan B. > **[frozenplague.net](http://www.frozenplague.net)** > > This domain may be for sale! ---
**Author:** ![rubenfonseca](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@rubenfonseca](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubenfonseca)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 2:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-rest-resources-on-the-real-world-real/123681/3 "2007-12-20T02:46:28Z")
I believe he wants to generate documentation about his available RESTful API. And actually that would be a cool tool. _Brain starts moving…_ –Jeremy On Dec 19, 2007 6:47 PM, Ryan B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > First of all let me congratulate all the team involved on the > > Rúben > > Ryan B. > [http://www.frozenplague.net](http://www.frozenplague.net) > > > – [http://www.jeremymcanally.com/](http://www.jeremymcanally.com/) My books: Ruby in Practice > **[Ruby in Practice](https://www.manning.com/books/ruby-in-practice)** > > Like Ruby itself, Ruby in Practice will make you more productive. The book shows you practical techniques and strategies for small projects and large-scale environments. A cookbook-style reference, it gives you concrete examples of systems... My free Ruby e-book > **[Site not found · DreamHost](http://www.humblelittlerubybook.com/)** > > The owner of this domain has not yet uploaded their website. My blogs: > **[Site not found · DreamHost](http://www.mrneighborly.com/)** > > The owner of this domain has not yet uploaded their website. [http://www.rubyinpractice.com/](http://www.rubyinpractice.com/) ---
**Author:** ![rubenfonseca](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@rubenfonseca](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubenfonseca)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 11:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-rest-resources-on-the-real-world-real/123681/4 "2007-12-20T11:35:35Z")
On 2007/12/20, at 01:45, Jeremy McAnally wrote: > I believe he wants to generate documentation about his available > RESTful API. > > And actually that would be a cool tool. > > _Brain starts moving…_ > > –Jeremy Yes that was exactly what I was thinking! I want to tell the users: “hey! I have a beautiful API! How do you use it? Here is the documentation: …”. I don’t really know if this is somewhat possible, but at least a skeleton documentation seems feasible. I could then fill the description about each method. Or it could be copied from the existing application documentation 🙂 Rúben ---
**Author:** ![rubenfonseca](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@rubenfonseca](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubenfonseca)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 12:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-rest-resources-on-the-real-world-real/123681/5 "2007-12-20T12:20:13Z")
it’s nearing 10pm here, been up since 7 and I’ve been coding most of the day, but maybe rake doc:app would do the skeleton your after? The content is specified by putting comments above the methods, like this: #This method will destroy the world def nuke\_it\_all … end On Dec 20, 2007 9:04 PM, Ruben F. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > > > > > extensively this new approach on a new website. What is the best way > > > > Technical Consultant > > > > [Ruby in Practice](http://www.manning.com/mcanally/) > > > – Ryan B. > **[frozenplague.net](http://www.frozenplague.net)** > > This domain may be for sale! ---
**Author:** ![rubenfonseca](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@rubenfonseca](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubenfonseca)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2007, 5:24am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-rest-resources-on-the-real-world-real/123681/6 "2007-12-22T05:24:54Z")
how about just rake routes to show the pertinent end points and explain how they are used? c On Dec 20, 12:04 pm, “Jeremy McAnally” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![rubenfonseca](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@rubenfonseca](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubenfonseca)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 7:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-rest-resources-on-the-real-world-real/123681/7 "2007-12-20T19:05:13Z")
Yeah, you could do that, but you’d have to :nodoc: all the stuff you didn’t want. It’d be cool to have an RDoc hooked tool that you could say something like: ``` resdoc accounts sessions pages ``` …and then it would crawl into your controllers directory, grab the documentation for it, and then spit out a nice looking REST API doc (which would likely look different than an RDoc). In RDoc, all the methods would look like `create`, `update`, etc for every controller, making them indistinguishable. If a person wanted to learn about the resources, they’d have to dig into your classes, and if they do that, they’re looking at the docs for your app not the exposed API. –Jeremy On Dec 20, 2007 6:19 AM, Ryan B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > And actually that would be a cool tool. > > > skeleton documentation seems feasible. I could then fill the > > > > > > > changes are in > > > > > > > > > ## First of all let me congratulate all the team involved on the Thank you for your support! > > > > > > > > – > > > > [http://www.jeremymcanally.com/](http://www.jeremymcanally.com/) > > > > [http://www.rubyinpractice.com/](http://www.rubyinpractice.com/) > > > > – > > > > Ryan B. > > > > [http://www.frozenplague.net](http://www.frozenplague.net) > > > – [http://www.jeremymcanally.com/](http://www.jeremymcanally.com/) My books: Ruby in Practice > **[Ruby in Practice](https://www.manning.com/books/ruby-in-practice)** > > Like Ruby itself, Ruby in Practice will make you more productive. The book shows you practical techniques and strategies for small projects and large-scale environments. A cookbook-style reference, it gives you concrete examples of systems... My free Ruby e-book > **[Site not found · DreamHost](http://www.humblelittlerubybook.com/)** > > The owner of this domain has not yet uploaded their website. My blogs: > **[Site not found · DreamHost](http://www.mrneighborly.com/)** > > The owner of this domain has not yet uploaded their website. [http://www.rubyinpractice.com/](http://www.rubyinpractice.com/)