Question

I am calling a random Post and allowing users to +1 or -1 the post before loading another post. My model generates a random record at the URL /posts/random using the following.

Post.rb // Model

def self.find(*args)
  if args.first.to_s == "random"
    Post.find :first, :offset => rand(Post.count)
  else
    super
end

This code generates a random post when the user visits posts/random. However, I also defined a thumbs_up and thumbs_down field in the database that correspond to a thumb_up and a thumb_down image that when clicked, need to +1 or -1 the value in the database, before redirecting to another /posts/random. My understanding is that to do this I need to invoke the PUT update method, however, since my URL is posts/random instead of posts/1, how can I do this? Do I need to alter my routes?

Answer 1

First thing is that you’d need is an instance variable representing the random post so that you could use it in the thumbs up and thumbs down links. Then you need to make sure that those links look something like this:

<%= link_to "Thumbs Up", post_path(@post, thumbs_up: 1), method: :put %>
<%= link_to "Thumbs Down", post_path(@post, thumbs_down: 1), method: :put %>

That way, when in your update action for your posts controller, you can do something like this:

@post.update_attributes(thumbs_up: @post.thumbs_up + params[:thumbs_up],thumbs_down: @post.thumbs_down + params[:thumbs_down] )

That is only a start, but I think that should get you going in the right direction.