Ok first off I have to say I'm very new to Rails. I have spent the last few days going through tutorial after tutorial and still missing a few concepts. Mainly because I just want to start off with a simple site structure but every tutorial is either a shopping cart or a blog which are more applications within a site. I have some pages on my site that will have photo galleries that are database driven but for now I'm just trying to get some answers to these questions.
Site structure:
home | photos | about | work | contact
Work has sub pages for example:
html | ruby | rails | bla-bla
Controllers:
Do I need to set up a controller for every new page or could I have one controller that handles all main level pages.
If I could use one controller how would that work and would I need to define an action to handle each page ( view ) like
class MainController < ApplicationController
def index
end
def photos
end
def contact
end
# and so on ......
end
Routing:
How would I route the above.
Whats the difference between a resource and a *get
get "photos/photos"
resources :photos
When I setup a controller for a specific page like.
rails g controller Contact contact
It creates a folder inside my views called contact and inside it is a view called contact meaning my url is contact/contact
it also adds a route get "contact/contact"
Now what if I only want the user to type http://mydomain/contact then this is not going to work. How would I set it up so the user doesn't have to add http://mydomain/contact/contact
The only way I could find a way around this was to use the match verb.
match "contact" => 'contact#contact'
Does this mean I have to use the match for every page on my site to change the url path?
These are just a few of many question I have that are not so clear in most of the tutorials I have gone over. Please don't tell me to use the user guide as I have already and am felling overwhelmed right now. I just would love some clear answers from some developers who are working in rails and would go about setting up a structure like I have outlined above.
Thanks
You're going to get some conflicting advice I think, but here's what I'd do.
Create a MainController (I prefer HomeController as it will also handle the homepage, but that's just me). This controller will handle the actions for home, about, and contact.
Create a PhotosController since you said photos come from the database and there's a good chance there is an index/listing page and individual pages for each photo.
Create a WorksController that handles the work main page and all the sub pages.
Now.. some people would argue (myself included) that home, about, contact, and all the work pages (sub pages too) should be handled by a generic PagesController that is smart enough to know what to do. I'm not gonna get into that now though.
The difference between these two routes:
get "photos/photos"
resources :photos
Is that the first will only create a single route for a GET request to '/photos/photos'. The second will create the standard CRUD operations for '/photos'.
For your static pages, I probably would go ahead and just create:
match "about" => 'main#about'
match "contact" => 'main#contact'
...
It's harder to say for the photos and work since I don't know what all you'll be doing there. The above isn't as DRY as it could be, but unless you go the "smart pages controller" route it's the simplest.
Related
I am a big advocate of the Page Object Pattern (POP) as defined by the experts at Selenium:
https://code.google.com/p/selenium/wiki/PageObjects
A key view of theirs that I have always followed when using Appium with Java is:
"Methods return other PageObjects"
e.g. LoginPage loginPage = homePage.gotoLoginPage();
I am now trying to following POP using Calabash with Ruby and so have been writing code like this:
e.g. #login_page = #home_page.goto_login_page
However, since Ruby doesn't know what type of object #login_page is or #home_page is, you dont get any of the benefits of intellisense showing what methods are available for a given page.
Anyone know a good way around this?
As much as I appreciate and apply PO design pattern, as much I disagree with returning page object by page object. Page object should be independent and don't need to know about other page objects. Look at two examples:
You test form validation. Click on submit button returns page object which is subsequent in the workflow, but in this case you remain on page with validation errors. Your page object won't know about it and will return the other page.
Page which you get to after clicking a button may differ depending on the context (e.g. from what other page you got to current page). It can lead to having multiple versions of actually same method, which will return different page objects depending on context. This is not good and overcomplicates simple thing.
If you want to return current page object, you can benefit from it e.g. in Java, when you return this at the end of the method. Then you can chain all methods you execute as long as you are on the same page. But when it comes to the question 'how to implement returning different page objects' - answer is simple - 'just don't'. Please note wiki entry you quoted has not been updated for a good while and best practices has evolved since it was originally published.
It seems like you already have your solution. However for others and perhaps also for you the x-platform approach to calabash uses page objects so you could check out that implementation https://github.com/calabash/x-platform-example
An alternative method would be as follows. Not as neat as I would like (given the need to manually create new instances of subsequent pages), but available as an alternative option:
When(/^I buy a movie from the movie page$/) do
movie_page = MoviePage.new
movie_page.buyMovie("Test Movie")
purchase_page = PurchasePage.new
purchase_page.confirmPurchase
end
Found a way of getting this to work after much research and applying well known Java/C#/Obj-c principles to Ruby:
Given(/^I am on the launch page$/) do
#launch_page ||= LaunchPage.new
end
When(/^I open the set alarm time page$/) do
#set_alarm_page = #launch_page.goto_set_alarm_page
end
When(/^I open our apps from the home page$/) do
#launch_page.navigation_toolbar.open_our_apps
end
Then(/^I should see the homepage alarm time is (\d+)$/) do |alarm_time|
alarm_time_actual = #launch_page.get_alarm_time
assert_equal(alarm_time, alarm_time_actual)
end
As long as somewhere on the step definition class you explicitly create a new page object (in the above example: LaunchPage.new), then all subsequent pages will provide intellisense method/property values, since the resulting page types returned will be known by RubyMine.
I have a rails app that has a list of Products, and therefore I have an index action on my ProductsController that allows me to see a list of them all.
I want to have another view of the products that presents them with a lot more information and in a different format -- what's The Rails Way for doing that?
I figure my main options are:
pass a parameter (products/index.html?other_view=true) and then have an if else block in ProductsController#index that renders a different view as required. That feels a bit messy.
pass a parameter (products/index.html?other_view=true) and then have an if else block in my view (index.html.haml) that renders different html as required. (I already know this is not the right choice.)
Implement a new action on my controller (e.g.: ProductsController#detailed_index) that has it's own view (detailed_index.html.haml). Is that no longer RESTful?
Is one of those preferable, or is there another option I haven't considered?
Thanks!
Another way of doing it would be via a custom format. This is commonly done to provide mobile specific versions of pages, but I don't see why the same idea couldn't be applied here.
Register :detailed as an alias of text/html and then have index.detailed.haml (or .erb) with the extra information. If you need to load extra data for the detailed view you can do so within the respond_to block.
Then visitors to /somecollection/index.detailed should see the detailed view. You can link to it with some_collection_path(:format=>'detailed')
I'm not sure whether this is 'bettrr' than the alternatives but there is a certain logic I think to saying that a detailed view is just an alternative representation of the data, which is what formats are for.
After doing some reading, I think that adding a new RESTful action (option #3 in my question) is the way to go. Details are here: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/routing.html#adding-more-restful-actions
I've updated my routes.rb like this:
resources :products do
get 'detailed', :on => :collection
end
And added a corresponding action to my ProductsController:
def detailed
# full_details is a scope that eager-loads all the associations
respond_with Product.full_details
end
And then of course added a detailed.html.haml view that shows the products in a the detailed way I wanted. I can link to this with detailed_products_path which generates the URL /products/detailed.
After implementing this I'm sure this was the right way to go. As the RoR guides say, if I was doing a lot of custom actions it probably means I should have another controller, but just one extra action like this is easy to implement, is DRY and works well. It feels like The Rails Way. :-)
I am making a site for a client and decided i would use code igniter.
The site essentially has two backends, one for designers, and one for a sales team. So after logging in, the user will be redirected to either
mysite.com/sales/
mysite.com/design/
The sales team for example can view orders, containers, products, therefore i need a controller for each of these.
mysite.com/sales/orders/
The sales need to be able to view, edit, delete certain orders...
mysite.com/sales/orders/vieworder/235433
Basically my problem is i dont have enough url segments to play with.
My thoughts on solving my problem
removing the orders, containers, products classes and making ALL of their methods as methods of the sales class, although this would mean a large number of methods and loading all models so it seemed kind of pointless.
removing the sales/designer classes and controlling what each kind of user has access to based on a user type stored in session data.
a way of having an extra url segment?
I appreciate any advice, I just dont want to get 3 weeks into the project and realise i started wrong from the beginning!
Use folders.
If you make a subfolder in /application/ called sales you can put different controllers in there:
/application/
/sales/
orders.php /* Controller */
/design/
Then in orders.php you will put your vieworders($id) method and so on, and you will be able to acces it with domain.com/sales/orders/vieworders/id.
You can also make subfolders in the /models/ and /views/ to organize your files.
Now, Access Control is something apart and it depends more in the auth system you are using.
Give the user/designer a privilege, a column in the user table for example, check the permission of the user at the beginning of the function, then prevent or execute it.
This would be the exact way i would do it.
Seems like you should have a look into the routing class. Might be a dirty solution but rerouting the sales/(:any) to something like sales_$1 would mean you'd make controllers with names like sales_orders.
Same for the design part.
(FYI: $routing['sales/(:any)'] = 'sales_$1'; should do the trick; see application/config/routing.php).
I think this question is a matter of writing nice ruby code, let me see what you guys think. I've already setup all the auth/access token stuff with omniauth and and fbgraph, what I can't seem to work out is how to integrate it when a user creates a post.
My app revolves around users making posts (made up of 'title' and 'content'), I'd like the post to be automatically shared on facebook or twitter or both, depending on the particular authentications the users has setup. And not share anywhere if the user has signed up conventionally without facebook/twitter.
How would I integrate a dynamic way to share the title and content of a user's post whenever they post automatically? I was thinking of some type of after_save to the post model but I can't get it working right. Thank you for any help is it very much appreciated.Also it would great if it was a method that allowed for furture expansion if I wanted to share links and pictures later on.
This is the only post while searching that sheds some light about sharing to both but I'm still confused :(
Easy way of posting on Facebook page (not a profile but a fanpage)
In your Post model have:
after_commit :share_content
def share_content
user.share_content title, content
end
Then in User model have:
def share_content title, content
# some conditionals with whatever stuff you have to determine whether
# it's a twitter and/or facebook update...
if go_for_twitter
twitter.update title
end
if go_for_facebook
facebook.feed! :message => title
# ...etc.
end
end
So, I'm not quite sure how I should structure this in CakePHP to work correctly in the proper MVC form.
Let's, for argument sake, say I have the following data structure which are related in various ways:
Team
Task
Equipment
This is generally how sites are and is quite easy to structure and make in Cake. For example, I would have the a model, controller and view for each item set.
My problem (and I'm sure countless others have had it and already solved it) is that I have a level above the item sets. So, for example:
Department
Team
Task
Equipment
Department
Team
Task
Equipment
Department
Team
Task
Equipment
In my site, I need the ability for someone to view the site at an individual group level as well as move to view it all together (ie, ignore the groups).
So, I have models, views and controls for Depart, Team, Task and Equipment.
How do I structure my site so that from the Department view, someone can select a Department then move around the site to the different views for Team/Task/Equipment showing only those that belong to that particular Department.
In this same format, is there a way to also move around ignoring the department associations?
Hopefully the following example URLs clarifies anything that was unclear:
// View items while disregarding which group-set record they belong to
http://www.example.com/Team/action/id
http://www.example.com/Task/action/id
http://www.example.com/Equipment/action/id
http://www.example.com/Departments
// View items as if only those associated with the selected group-set record exist
http://www.example.com/Department/HR/Team/action/id
http://www.example.com/Department/HR/Task/action/id
http://www.example.com/Department/HR/Equipment/action/id
Can I get the controllers to function in this manner? Is there someone to read so I can figure this out?
Thanks to those that read all this :)
I think I know what you're trying to do. Correct me if I'm wrong:
I built a project manager for myself in which I wanted the URLs to be more logical, so instead of using something like
http://domain.com/project/milestones/add/MyProjectName I could use
http://domain.com/project/MyProjectName/milestones/add
I added a custom route to the end (!important) of my routes so that it catches anything that's not already a route and treats it as a "variable route".
Router::connect('/project/:project/:controller/:action/*', array(), array('project' => '[a-zA-Z0-9\-]+'));
Whatever route you put means that you can't already (or ever) have a controller by that name, for that reason I consider it a good practice to use a singular word instead of a plural. (I have a Projects Controller, so I use "project" to avoid conflicting with it.)
Now, to access the :project parameter anywhere in my app, I use this function in my AppController:
function __currentProject(){
// Finding the current Project's Info
if(isset($this->params['project'])){
App::import('Model', 'Project');
$projectNames = new Project;
$projectNames->contain();
$projectInfo = $projectNames->find('first', array('conditions' => array('Project.slug' => $this->params['project'])));
$project_id = $projectInfo['Project']['id'];
$this->set('project_name_for_layout', $projectInfo['Project']['name']);
return $project_id;
}
}
And I utilize it in my other controllers:
function overview(){
$this->layout = 'project';
// Getting currentProject id from App Controller
$project_id = parent::__currentProject();
// Finding out what time it is and performing queries based on time.
$nowStamp = time();
$nowDate = date('Y-m-d H:i:s' , $nowStamp);
$twoWeeksFromNow = $nowDate + 1209600;
$lateMilestones = $this->Project->Milestone->find('all', array('conditions'=>array('Milestone.project_id' => $project_id, 'Milestone.complete'=> 0, 'Milestone.duedate <'=> $nowDate)));
$this->set(compact('lateMilestones'));
$currentProject = $this->Project->find('all', array('conditions'=>array('Project.slug' => $this->params['project'])));
$this->set(compact('currentProject'));
}
For your project you can try using a route like this at the end of your routes.php file:
Router::connect('/:groupname/:controller/:action/*', array(), array('groupname' => '[a-zA-Z0-9\-]+'));
// Notice I removed "/project" from the beginning. If you put the :groupname first, as I've done in the last example, then you only have one option for these custom url routes.
Then modify the other code to your needs.
If this is a public site, you may want to consider using named variables. This will allow you to define the group on the URL still, but without additional functionality requirements.
http://example.com/team/group:hr
http://example.com/team/action/group:hr/other:var
It may require custom routes too... but it should do the job.
http://book.cakephp.org/view/541/Named-parameters
http://book.cakephp.org/view/542/Defining-Routes
SESSIONS
Since web is stateless, you will need to use sessions (or cookies). The question you will need to ask yourself is how to reflect the selection (or not) of a specific department. It could be as simple as putting a drop down selection in the upper right that reflects ALL, HR, Sales, etc. When the drop down changes, it will set (or clear) the Group session variable.
As for the functionality in the controllers, you just check for the Session. If it is there, you limit the data by the select group. So you would use the same URLs, but the controller or model would manage how the data gets displayed.
// for all functionality use:
http://www.example.com/Team/action/id
http://www.example.com/Task/action/id
http://www.example.com/Equipment/action/id
You don't change the URL to accommodate for the functionality. That would be like using a different URL for every USER wanting to see their ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER, or BILLING INFO. Where USER would be the group and ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER< and BILLING INFO would be the item sets.
WITHOUT SESSIONS
The other option would be to put the Group filter on each page. So for example on Team/index view you would have a group drop down to filter the data. It would accomplish the same thing without having to set and clear session variables.
The conclusion is and the key thing to remember is that the functionality does not change nor does the URLs. The only thing that changes is that you will be working with filtered data sets.
Does that make sense?