I'd like to display a comparison page so user can compare the properties of several objects in my database. Any number of objects can be compared. I'd also like it to be bookmarkable (so a 'get').
How should I structure my URL / route for the controller?
Something like /foo_compare/1_5_22 where I split the ids into 1, 5 and 22 in the controller?
Maybe /foo_compare/1/5/22, but how would I set up the route?
a) url_for(:controller => "my_controlelr",:action => "compare", :id => [1,2,3,4]) becomes "id"=>"1/2/3/4"
link would be my_controlelr/compare/1/2/3/4
b) url_for(:controller => "my_controlelr",:action => "compare", :ids => [1,2,3,4]) becomes "ids" => ["1", "2", "3", "4"]
link would be my_controlelr/compare/?ids[]=1&ids[]=2&ids[]=3&ids[]=4
No special routes are necessary
# routes.rb
map.connect 'compare/*:comparisons', :controller => 'whatever', :action => 'you_name_it'
# in the controller
ids = params[:comparisons].split('/')
This maps to e.g. /compare/1/5/203.
I'd prefer
/compare?a=1&b=5&c=22
The 1_5_22 is just fugly, and I think that
/compare/1/5/22
is a very non-RESTful route.
While I don't like the underscores, I think a delimited approach is reasonable. I'd probably use ';'
Logically, this is a set of IDs, exposing them as a series of parameters isn't great unless you really want to enforce a limit on the number of them