Question

I am currently trying to define my first new action in Rails 3, despite various problems I think things are almost done now. However, I as a final hurdle I am struggling to send the correct parameter value to my function…

My function is defined in items_controller:

def clickcountplusone
    clickeditem = Item.find(params[:id])
    redirect_to clickeditem.externalurl if clickeditem.update_attribute(:click_count, clickeditem.click_count + 1)
end 

routes.rb contains:

 match '/items/clickcountplusone', :to => 'items#clickcountplusone'

and the view contains:

<%= link_to image_tag( item.picture.to_s + ".gif", send("items_clickcountplusone_path", item.item_name)%>

The view page itself loads correctly (the one with the link on it), but when I click on the link I get an error:

Couldn't find Item with ID=clickcountplusone
{"id"=>"clickcountplusone",
"format"=>"whatever the name is"}

and rather than going to the external page, my browser tries to load:

http://localhost:3000/items/clickcountplusone.whatever the name is

Can anyone tell me how I should be calling the function so that the ID is the item_name and the external URL is visited rather than an incorrect one on my site?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

It seems like this would be a normal route, instead of a RESTful route (this is fine). There are some places you have to change.

First, in your controller’s action, you used params[:id] which is not set actually.

In this particular case, I would suggest you use params[:item_name] instead of id because you are really sending the item_name.

def clickcountplusone
  clickeditem = Item.find_by_item_name(params[:item_name])
  redirect_to clickeditem.externalurl if clickeditem.update_attribute(:click_count, clickeditem.click_count + 1)
end

Item.find could only be used if the parameter is one of the actual id / :all / :first / :last.

You are finding by the item_name, so you should use Item.find_by_item_name instead.

Second, you have to update you route too (or else you would need something like /you_path..?item_name=blahblahblah which is fine too if you don’t mind)

get 'items/:item_name' => 'items#clickcountplusone', :as => :items_clickcountplusone

Third, you view. IMO, most of the time if you are using send but not writing library / really back end code, you probably misusing it.

<%= link_to image_tag("#{item.picture.to_s}.gif"), items_clickcountplusone_path(:item_name => item.item_name) %>