# RESTful design advice

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/restful-design-advice/155180>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [December 9, 2008, 2:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/restful-design-advice/155180 "2008-12-09T02:12:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lunaclaire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lunaclaire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lunaclaire)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2008, 2:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/restful-design-advice/155180/1 "2008-12-09T02:12:31Z")

</div>

I’m currently in my first app desgined using REST and after reading a  
few tutorials the basics are pretty clear, but I have a design problem  
that I bet is common, but I’m not sure of the best approach…

Here are my classes/resources:

class Player \< ActiveRecord::Base  
…  
has\_many :trackers  
…  
end

class User \< ActiveRecord::Base  
…  
has\_many :trackers  
…  
end

class Tracker \< ActiveRecord::Base  
…  
belongs\_to :user  
belongs\_to :player  
…  
end

I had no problem doing the basic generation of scaffolding and  
building out functionality for Player and User, but now that I’m  
building out the Trackers that allow a User to track a Player, I’m  
confused.

I thought at first that maybe I’d set it up as a nested resource, but  
that’s not making sense to me because a Tracker belongs to both a User  
and a Player.

Also, from a user story design perspective, the basic thing here is  
that a user should be able to track a listed or displayed Player. So,  
I think one of the views will display lists of Players with each  
having a “Track” button or link next to them. I’d guess this will make  
use of a “new\_tracker\_path”, but that would need to pass params for  
_both_ the current User and the selected Player… right? (I tried it  
with just passing the Player ref and thought I could just deal with my  
@current\_user variable in the controller, but something wasnt right)

So, can anyone help with advice on best practices for this kind of  
design where a resource is joining two other resources?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lunaclaire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lunaclaire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lunaclaire)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/restful-design-advice/155180/2 "2008-12-09T18:01:35Z")

</div>

It sounds to me like Users have Players is your nesting. Also, you  
seem to have a “has\_many :through” join setup but have implemented a  
basic “has\_many”. Consider this change…

class Player \< ActiveRecord::Base  
…  
has\_many :trackers  
has\_many :users, :through =\> :trackers  
…  
end

class User \< ActiveRecord::Base  
…  
has\_many :trackers  
has\_many :players, :through =\> :trackers  
…  
end

class Tracker \< ActiveRecord::Base  
…  
belongs\_to :user  
belongs\_to :player  
…  
end

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lunaclaire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lunaclaire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lunaclaire)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2008, 11:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/restful-design-advice/155180/3 "2008-12-09T23:07:26Z")

</div>

Thanks, Andy. It occurred to me this morning that it would useful to  
add the has\_many/through to it.

I’m still not clear though on the nested aspect of the design.

I ~thought~ I needed to nest the _Trackers_ under one or the other of  
Users or Players… this follows from my reading that resources that  
should be nested are those that cant really exist outside of another  
resource. In my case a Tracker doesnt make sense without the  
association with a Player first and without a User second… Players  
_can_ exist without a User.

Am I getting it right?

Also, I seem to read that I can nest under _both_ Users and Players.  
Things can get more complex, but it can be done.

Is this true? If so, again, I’m curious what people say re: doing  
so… and back to my original post, would it better (aka simpler) to  
nest Trackers under Players and rely on a current\_user variable being  
set to make that association in the TrackersController when a new  
Tracker is being created for a Player?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lunaclaire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lunaclaire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lunaclaire)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2008, 11:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/restful-design-advice/155180/4 "2008-12-09T23:40:49Z")

</div>

I’ve always used HM :through for descriptive associations - usually I  
just want a created\_at date so one could determine when a user joined  
a group (for example). I don’t see how a “Tracker”, which looks like  
a join, makes sense without both a User and a Player.

This is correct understanding:  
“resources that should be nested are those that can’t really exist  
outside of another resource”

if a resource makes sense outside of the nesting then it shouldn’t be  
nested.

the traditional example is Article -\> Comments - you could have  
Comments outside the context of an article - but they don’t have much  
meaning