Custom routes in Rails

Question

Hi! I'm trying to create some nice links over my website. I'm creating a search via tags just now, and I wonder if it is possible to create some nice routes like this:

http://myapp.com/search/a_very
http://myapp.com/search/nice_set
http://myapp.com/search/of_tags

or at least like this:

http://myapp.com/articles/search/a_very
http://myapp.com/articles/search/nice_set
http://myapp.com/articles/search/of_tags

I've done some experiments with a link_for, and figured out that it's impossible to avoid action?parameter=value construction there. I'm also trying to avoid any of 'numbers stuff' in the address, like sending ids between actions, etc.. Anyway, I'm just a beginner and I have absolutely no idea which direction should I digg for.

Should it be some routes magic? How to apply that magic to my example? Am I broking 'convention of configuration' paradigm?

Answer 1

This shouldn't require much "magic"; it's a pretty standard kind of route. You could do it like this (in routes.rb)

map.tag_search "search/:tags", :controller => "tags", :action => "search"

The above assumes you have a Tags controller with a search action. Inside that action, the end of your URL will be available in params[:tags].

I'd recommend reading the Rails Guide on Routing - it covers this scenario and many others.