No route matches [POST] "/story/new" after submitting form - ruby

Question

I've just started "Build Your Own Ruby on Rails" and I have had to use Google a lot, as the book seems to have a bunch of places where the code just doesn't work. This time, I couldn't find an answer. Okay, so here's the deal. I have a form that looks like this:
new.html.erb:
<%= form_for :story do |f| %>
<p>
name:<br />
<%= f.text_field :name %>
</p>
<p>
link: <br />
<%= f.text_field :link %>
</p>
<p>
<%= submit_tag %>
</p>
<% end %>
It shows up fine when I go to localhost:3000/story/new. The thing is, when I try to type stuff into the form and press "submit," I get this error:
Routing Error
No route matches [POST] "/story/new"
My routes.rb looks like this:
FirstApp::Application.routes.draw do
resources :story
story_controller looks like this:
def new
#story = Story.new(params[:story])
if request.post?
#story.save
end
end
The story_controller stuff for new is straight out of the book. I thought I might have had a solution here, but no dice. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I'm guessing you meant (note the at sign):
<%= form_for #story do |f| %>
That'll probably take care of your routing issue, but as John mentions, your controller action is a bit off, too. The new action should only load a dummy model and display the new.html.erb page - the saving should take place in a separate action, called create.
Hope this helps!
Edit: Minimal controller code:
class StoriesController < ApplicationController
def new
#Make a dummy story so any default fields are filled correctly...
#story = Story.new
end
def create
#story = Story.new(params[:story])
if(#story.save)
#Saved successfully; go to the index (or wherever)...
redirect_to :action => :index
else
#Validation failed; show the "new" form again...
render :action => :new
end
end
end

Answer 2

First off, Rails is relies on convention over configuration when using singular vs plural names. If you want to follow convention, you have to change the line in your routes.rb to resources :stories, which would generate following routes:
stories GET /stories(.:format) stories#index
POST /stories(.:format) stories#create
new_story GET /stories/new(.:format) stories#new
edit_story GET /stories/:id/edit(.:format) stories#edit
story GET /stories/:id(.:format) stories#show
PUT /stories/:id(.:format) stories#update
DELETE /stories/:id(.:format) stories#destroy
Note, that in this case you would have to rename your controller to StoriesController. However, your routes.rb has resources :story, which generates following routes:
story_index GET /story(.:format) story#index
POST /story(.:format) story#create
new_story GET /story/new(.:format) story#new
edit_story GET /story/:id/edit(.:format) story#edit
story GET /story/:id(.:format) story#show
PUT /story/:id(.:format) story#update
DELETE /story/:id(.:format) story#destroy
As you can see, indeed, there is no route for POST /story/new. I guess, the error that you are getting is triggered by following code in your controller:
if request.post?
#story.save
end
It is quite wrong, because you trying to check for POST request inside the action that is routed to by GET. Just remove this code from your new action and add create action to your StoryController like this:
def create
#story = params[:story]
if #story.save
redirect_to #story, notice: "Story created"
else
render action: "new"
end
end
This should resolve your issue for now. But I strongly recommend using plural stories for your resources, since it will be back to haunt you again.

Answer 3

This is the part that you (and me) have missed from the guide:
There's one problem with this form though. If you inspect the HTML
that is generated, by viewing the source of the page, you will see
that the action attribute for the form is pointing at /articles/new.
This is a problem because this route goes to the very page that you're
on right at the moment, and that route should only be used to display
the form for a new article.
The form needs to use a different URL in order to go somewhere else.
This can be done quite simply with the :url option of form_for.
Typically in Rails, the action that is used for new form submissions
like this is called "create", and so the form should be pointed to
that action.
Edit the form_for line inside app/views/articles/new.html.erb to look like this:
<%= form_for :story, url: stories_path do |f| %>