# Routing problems for different formats

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/routing-problems-for-different-formats/174262>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [August 23, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/routing-problems-for-different-formats/174262 "2009-08-23T23:01:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chrisolsen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@chrisolsen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chrisolsen)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/routing-problems-for-different-formats/174262/1 "2009-08-23T23:01:29Z")

</div>

I am having 2 similar problems with routing.

1. With Rails if I make a js request using jQuery I always have to  
append a “.js” extension to allow the request to be handled  
appropriately. If I don’t append a js extension I get html formatted  
data back. Using Merb this never happened and worked like I thought it  
should.

2. Today I am having problems allowing xml requests to be handled by the  
controller. Even if I have a respond\_to block that accepts xml  
requests, the html block will handle it instead. If I try the work  
around mentioned in problem #1 Rails throws an error of being unable to  
route the request. If I add a :format key to the specific route in the  
routes.rb file, that defaults to :html, it then works.

Why is it that I have to allow for the :format in the xml case, but in  
the :js case I need the .js extension?

Am I missing something? This seems a little too sloppy for Rails.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chrisolsen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@chrisolsen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chrisolsen)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 11:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/routing-problems-for-different-formats/174262/2 "2009-08-23T23:35:25Z")

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Without looking at your routes and code it’s really had to find a  
reason.

- 

Maurício Linhares  
[http://codeshooter.wordpress.com/](http://codeshooter.wordpress.com/) | [http://twitter.com/mauriciojr](http://twitter.com/mauriciojr)

On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 6:01 PM, Chris

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chrisolsen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@chrisolsen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chrisolsen)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 11:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/routing-problems-for-different-formats/174262/3 "2009-08-23T23:53:16Z")

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Maurício Linhares wrote:

> Without looking at your routes and code it’s really had to find a  
> reason.

A big part of the issue is that the initial problems are using standard  
code, the hacks only come into play to make things work.

First issue:  
$(“#terms-of-use”).click(function() {  
var url = this.href + “.js” // \<= hack #1 to allow format.js block to  
be called  
$.get(url, function() {  
…  
})  
})

# controller

def terms\_of\_use  
respond\_to do |format|  
format.html {}  
format.js {render :action =\> “terms\_of\_use”, :layout =\> false}  
end  
end

Second issue  
Enter [http://foobar.com/schedule/1.xml](http://foobar.com/schedule/1.xml) into browser

#controller  
def schedule  
@todos = User.find(params[:id]).todos  
respond\_to do |format|  
format.html {}  
format.xml { render :xml =\> @todos.to\_xml }  
end  
end

# routes.rb

# this won’t work to allow the xml request to be made

map.schedule “schedule/:id”, :controller =\> “main”, :action =\>  
“schedule”

## Hack #2: adding the format option will allow it to work

map.schedule “schedule/id.:format”, :controller =\> “main”, :action =\>  
“schedule”, :format =\> “html”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chrisolsen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@chrisolsen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chrisolsen)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 5:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/routing-problems-for-different-formats/174262/4 "2009-08-24T05:27:02Z")

</div>

Thanks for clearing that up Maurício.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chrisolsen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@chrisolsen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chrisolsen)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 4:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/routing-problems-for-different-formats/174262/5 "2009-08-24T04:59:06Z")

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Hi Chris,

You’re not doing any hacks, you’re doing what’s expected to tell rails  
that a route will accept various formats, you should take a look at  
the routes guides to undertand how the respond\_to method works.

Also, to get JQuery to behave correctly without the “.js” you’ll need  
to add this somewhere in your application.js:

$(document).ready(function () {

```
jQuery.ajaxSetup({
    'beforeSend': function(xhr) {
        xhr.setRequestHeader("Accept", "text/javascript")
};

```

});

On the routes issue, as I said before, that’s how it works. A route  
like:

map.schedule “schedule/:id”, :controller =\> “main”, :action =\>  
“schedule”

Will never call the respond\_to with XML as a format unless the client  
sends an “Accept: application/xml” as a header and I think you’re not  
doing this, so, the route with a explicit format is required, this is  
no bug, that’s exactly how it should behave. Also, avoid mapping URLs  
directly as you’re doing, these paths should be mapped using  
resources.

- 

Maurício Linhares  
[http://codeshooter.wordpress.com/](http://codeshooter.wordpress.com/) | [http://twitter.com/mauriciojr](http://twitter.com/mauriciojr)

On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 6:53 PM, Chris