Complex Rails Routing

Question

I would like to do something like github has with nested urls, and like http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1863292/how-do-i-route-user-profile-urls-to-skip-the-controller but not really sure how to go on with it.

For example, looking at a commit they have: ':user/:repo/commit/:sha', with the controller being commit. How would I replicate this type of nested resource?

thank you :)

Answer 1

How about

map.connect ':user/:repo/commit/:sha', :action => :index

Or use map.resource instead of map.connect if you need a RESTful route.

In the controller, the URL information can be retrieved from params, for example params[:user] returns the username.

Answer 2

You can name your routes as you like, and specify which controllers and actions you'd like to use them with.

For example, you might have:

map.connect ':user/:repo/commit/:sha', :controller => 'transactions', :action => 'commit'

This would send the request to the 'commit' method in 'transactions' controller.

The other variables can then be accessed in your controller using params:

@user = User.find(params[:user])
@repo = Repo.find(params[:repo])

Answer 3

If commit is a RESTful controller that uses :sha instead of an id to find records. You could do this instead:

map.resource :commits, :path_prefix => ':user/:repo', :as => 'commit'

It will create the standard RESTful routes that look like http://yoursite.tld/:user/:repo/commit/:id

Again, if you'll never be translating the id portion in the url to a commit id, then there's no reason you can't use it as a :sha value.

example:

class CommitController < ApplicationController
  def show
    @commit = Commit.find(:first, :conditions => {:sha => params[:id]})
  end
  ...
end

You may also want to over ride to_param in the commit model to return the sha value.

class Commt < ActiveRecord::Base
  ...
  def to_param
    sha
  end
end

So that now link_to commit_url(@commit, :user => current_user, :repo => @repo) will provide a url that matches your scheme.