views:

28

answers:

1

I was trying to redirect to a different page after editing an entry, I assumed that it was using the update code because you are updating the database. It took me some time to realise that I was using the wrong action in the controller. Can someone please explain how edit and update work. Why are there two different actions? what are the differences between them?

+1  A: 

edit action is responsible for rendering the view

update action is responsible for interacting with the model (db updates etc)

If you run rake routes you will see the difference between the verb and the action. Typically, the create/update actions are used when submitting a form. This differs from the new and edit actions as these are used to render the view (that displays the form to be submitted).

Coderama
in what order are they called? what process does it go through? edit -> update -> edit? If i put a redirect in edit it won't get to the update?
inKit
Correct. If you want to redirect someone *after* they have updated an entry, you put the redirect in the update action.
theIV
So just 2 events in that chain: edit, which renders the form, then update, when the user submits it. If you redirect_to to go the a different page (default is often the show view in a scaffold), then you'd have a third one.
Joost Schuur