- The Two Purposes of Routing
- Bound Parameters
- Wildcard Components ("Receptors")
- Static Strings
- The routes.rb File
- The Ante-Default Route and respond_to
- The Empty Route
- Writing Custom Routes
- Using Static Strings
- Using Your Own "Receptors"
- A Note on Route Order
- Using Regular Expressions in Routes
- Default Parameters and the url_for Method
- Using Literal URLs
- Route Globbing
- Globbing Key-Value Pairs
- Named Routes
- What to Name Your Routes
- The Special Scope Method with_options
- Conclusion
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Globbing Key-Value Pairs
Route globbing might provide the basis for a general mechanism for fielding queries about items up for auction. Let's say you devise a URI scheme that takes the following form:
http://localhost:3000/items/field1/value1/field2/value2/...
Making requests in this way will return a list of all items whose fields match the values, based on an unlimited set of pairs in the URL.
In other words, http://localhost:3000/items/year/1939/medium/wood would generate a list of all wood items made in 1939.
The route that would accomplish this would be:
map.connect 'items/*specs', :controller => "items", :action => "specify"
Of course, you'll have to write a specify action like the one in Listing 3.2 to support this route.
Listing 3.2. The specify Action
def specify
@items = Item.find(:all, :conditions => Hash[params[:specs]])
if @items.any?
render :action => "index"
else
flash[:error] = "Can't find items with those properties"
redirect_to :action => "index"
end
end
How about that square brackets class method on Hash, eh? It converts a one-dimensional array of key/value pairs into a hash! Further proof that in-depth knowledge of Ruby is a prerequisite for becoming an expert Rails developer.
Next stop: Named routes, a way to encapsulate your route logic in made-to-order helper methods.