# Restfully Noob **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [January 8, 2007, 3:26am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/restfully-noob/81343 "2007-01-08T03:26:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a87d85/32.png) [@pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pezdude)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 3:26am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/restfully-noob/81343/1 "2007-01-08T03:26:44Z")
I’ve been playing with REST today and can’t quite figure out a routing issue. I have a controller named Accounts which has 3 actions: 1. new 2. create 3. chuck My routes file has the following: ``` map.resources :accounts, :member => { :chuck => :get } map.connect ':controller/:action/:id' ``` These are the urls I would expect to work, but they both produce errors: ``` http://localhost:3000/accounts/;chuck Produces: Routing Error: no route found to match "/accounts/;chuck" with {:method=>:get} or http://localhost:3000/accounts/chuck Produces: Unknown action: no action responded to show ``` This actually works, but ``` http://localhost:3000/accounts/1;chuck but doesn't really contain a valid id, can put anything where the 1 ``` is. Just wondering what I am doing wrong? Thanks, Dave ---
**Author:** ![pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a87d85/32.png) [@pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pezdude)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 5:34am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/restfully-noob/81343/2 "2007-01-08T05:34:46Z")
Hi David, The last route is correct, but what is the chuck method doing ? maybe you’re looking for :collection =\> {:chuck =\> :get} ---
**Author:** ![pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a87d85/32.png) [@pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pezdude)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 3:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/restfully-noob/81343/3 "2007-01-08T15:46:27Z")
isaac wrote: > Hi David, > > The last route is correct, but what is the chuck method doing ? > > maybe you’re looking for :collection =\> {:chuck =\> :get} Hi Isaac, Chuck really doesn’t do anything, I was just messing with trying to add a non-standard REST action to a controller. The thing that’s weird is: [http://localhost:3000/accounts/1;chuck](http://localhost:3000/accounts/1;chuck) [http://localhost:3000/accounts/beetlejuice;chuck](http://localhost:3000/accounts/beetlejuice;chuck) [http://localhost:3000/accounts/anythingthatdoesntmatter;chuck](http://localhost:3000/accounts/anythingthatdoesntmatter;chuck) all work. I want the chuck action to function like a nonREST action. The action requires no id, yet since it’s a get, it requires an id. In other words, I’d like the “chuck” action to function like the “index” action, since “index” requires no id. Hope that makes sense. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a87d85/32.png) [@pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pezdude)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2007, 3:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/restfully-noob/81343/4 "2007-01-09T15:44:09Z")
isaac wrote: Hi Isaac, Just trying to see what’s possible with map.resources. I got the new agile 1.2 book - but it really doesn’t explain the difference between a collection and a member very well. Thanks again. Dave ---
**Author:** ![pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a87d85/32.png) [@pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pezdude)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2007, 8:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/restfully-noob/81343/5 "2007-01-09T20:16:29Z")
Hi Dave, > Just trying to see what’s possible with map.resources. I got > the new agile 1.2 book - but it really doesn’t explain the difference > between a collection and a member very well. In a Rails way, it would be Collection has\_many :members, Member belongs\_to :collection 🙂 ``` -- Jean-François. ``` – À la renverse. ---
**Author:** ![pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a87d85/32.png) [@pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pezdude)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 4:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/restfully-noob/81343/6 "2007-01-19T16:31:19Z")
In this context a member would mean an individual instance of the model Account. A collection would be interested in more than one member of the model Account. So the index route/action/view is a collection because it is accessing a collection of accounts (possibly all accounts) The show route/action/view however is a member because it is only interested in one member of the model Account. (hence :id being part of the route - this is how the individual member is identified) I hope this is helpful and not more confusing 🙂 disclaimer: I am quite new to ruby/rails/REST so please don’t take my word as gospel. ---
**Author:** ![pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a87d85/32.png) [@pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pezdude)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2007, 11:34am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/restfully-noob/81343/7 "2007-01-09T11:34:58Z")
Its not really that weird is it ? In the second case its passing beetlejuice as the id, your controller doesn’t know its an invalid id until you try and find the record - @account = Account.find(params[:id]) I think you have 2 choices here: 1. You can keep everything RESTful and add chuck in like this: map.resources :accounts, :collection =\> {:chuck =\> :get} which will give you the route /accounts;chuck 1. you can include a custom route before your map.resources like this: map.connect ‘accounts/chuck’, :controller =\> ‘accounts’, :action =\> ‘chuck’ which give you the route /accounts/chuck Your choice…#2 is not the restful way AFAIK