Question

Here’s what I need to do. I have a Tournament model, which is connected to User via Signup (N:N).

The only thing that Signup adds is status of the signup. Tournament has a start time, and users can register only until there is 60 minutes before the tournament starts. After that, registered users can check in. So basically I have two options for the state

In short, models looks like this

class Signup < ActiveRecord::Base
  REGISTERED = 0
  CHECKED = 1

  belongs_to :tournament
  belongs_to :user
end

class Tournament < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :signups
  has_many :users, :through => :signups
end

class User < ActiveRecord::Base  
  has_many :signups
  has_many :tournaments, :through => :signups
end

I skipped some code to keep this short. The problem is with the view, since I have a lot of conditions to keep in mind. Here’s my actual code (using Slim as a templating engine)

- if logged_in?
  - if current_user.registered_for?(@tournament)
    - if @tournament.starts_at < 60.minutes.from_now
      p Signups are closed, only registered users can now check in
      - if current_user.registered_for?(@tournament)
        = button_to "Checkin!", { :controller => :signups, :action => :update, :id => @tournament.id }, :method => :put
    - else
      = button_to "Cancel your registration for the tournament", { :controller => :signups, :action => :destroy, :id => @tournament.id }, :method => :delete
  - elsif current_user.checked_in?(@tournament)
    p You have already checked in.            
  - elsif @tournament.starts_at > 60.minutes.from_now
    = button_to "Sign up for the tournament", :controller => :signups, :action => :create, :method => :post, :id => @tournament.id
  - else
    p
      | The tournament starts in less than 60 minutes, you can't sign in
- else
  p 
    | You need to 
    |  
    = link_to "log in", login_path
    |  to play

The problem is, I have no idea how to make this much cleaner. I mean yes I can add helpers for buttons, but that won’t help me with the if if else else ugliness, because there are many different combinations. Here’s a short list:

• user isn’t logged in
• it’s over 60 until the tournament starts and user hasn’t yet registered for the tournament
• it’s over 60 until the tournament starts and user is already registered
• it’s under 60 minutes, but user isn’t registered yet
• it’s under 60 minutes and user is registered but hasn’t checked in
• it’s under 60 minutes and user already checked in

And this is just the tip of the iceberg, because admins should see more information than a regular user, but I don’t want to complicate this question.

The main problem is, how should I handle cases like this? It just seems so terrible to do this in a view, but I don’t see any other simpler way.

Answer 1

A cleaner way would be to create meaningful methods on your models. For example, in your Tournament model, add something like :

def can_register?( user )
  !user.registered_for?(self) && self.starts_at > 60.minutes.from_now
end

And then in your view, you can check for can_register? before displaying something. Adding logic into the view like you did is not what is intended in a MVC application.