Docs for auto-generated methods in Ruby on Rails

Question

Rails has all sorts of auto-generated methods that I've often times struggled to find documentation for.

For example, in routes.rb, if I have:

map.resources :projects do |p|
  p.resources :tasks
end

This will get a plethora of auto-generate path and url helpers. Where can I find documentation for how to work with these paths? I generally understand how to work with them, but more explicit docs might help me understand some of the magic that happens behind the scenes.

# compare
project_path(@project)
project_task_path(@project, @task)

# to
project_path(:id => @project.id)
project_task_path(:project_id => @project.id, :id => @task.id)

Also, when I change an attribute on a model, @post.foo_changed? will be true. Where can I find documentation for this and all other magical methods that are created like this? If the magic is there, I'd love to take advantage of it.

And finally: Is there a complete resource for config.___ statements for environment.rb? I was able to find docs for Configuration#gem but what attributes can I set within the stubs like config.active_record.___, config.action_mailer.___, config.action_controller.___, etc. Again, I'm looking for a complete resource here, not just a settings for the examples I provided.

Even if you can only answer one of these questions, please chime in. These things seem to have been hiding from me and it's my goal to get them some more exposure, so I'll be upvoting all links to docs that point me to what I'm looking for.

Thanks!

ps, If they're not called auto-generated methods, I apologize. Someone can teach me a lesson here, too :)

Edit

I'm not looking for tutorials here, folks. I have a fair amount of experience with rails; I'm just looking for complete docs. E.g., I understand how routing works, I just want docs where I can read about all of the usage options.

Answer 1

Try following command inside your application folder, this will give some helpfull informations.

$ rake routes

Also, good starting point to learn RoR : http://www.railstutorial.org/ (start directly with Rails 3 beta concept)

Answer 2

• Rails Routing from the Outside In is a pretty good explanation of how routing works (There's also a Rails 3 version)
• Documentation for the ActionController::Routing module
• The foo_changed? stuff is implemented by the ActiveRecord::Dirty module (API documentation)
• EdgeRails.info is a handy site for finding out about new things as they are added to Rails

I'd like to find a complete reference for the available environment configuration options too. Having said that, the various environment config files are pretty well commented.

Answer 3

Routes screencasts, probably you will find answers there :

http://railscasts.com/episodes?search=route

Hope this will help.

(other way, very interesting site to learn RoR)