Question

I am using Devise in an app for the first time and I am having a weird problem I cant understand:

I’ve created my User model with Devise, and setup all the registration, user sign-up, etc, and everything works fine. In my application header, I have my nav menu (which is currently empty) and a partial with log in, sign out, etc:

_header.html.erb

<div class='topbar'>
    <div class='container'>
        <%= link_to 'My app', root_path, :class => 'brand' %>
        <div class='nav'>
        </div>
        <%= render 'layouts/user_options' %>
    </div>
</div>

_user_options.html.erb

<ul class='user-options'>
    <% if user_signed_in? %>
      <li><%= link_to "Signed in as #{current_user.username}", '#' %></li>
      <li><%= link_to "Sign out", destroy_user_session_path, :method => :delete %></li>
    <% else %>
      <li><%= link_to "Sign up", new_user_registration_path %></li>
      <li><%= link_to "Sign in", new_user_session_path %></li>
    <% end %>
</ul>

Now I am adding the first link to the nav menu, if I use:

<%= link_to 'Tasks', '/tasks/index'  %>

Everything is fine. BUT if I use:

<%= link_to 'Tasks', :controller => 'tasks', :action => 'index'  %>

When I click on any of the Devise links, such as ‘Sign in’, I get 'No route matches {:controller=>"devise/tasks"}'

By request on the comments, here is the output of rake routes:
Tasks: TOP => routes => environment
(See full trace by running task with –trace)
MacBook-Pro-de-o:dearsherpa Oscar$ bundle exec rake routes

             tasks_index GET    /tasks/index(.:format)         {:controller=>"tasks", :action=>"index"}
              tasks_show GET    /tasks/show(.:format)          {:controller=>"tasks", :action=>"show"}
        new_user_session GET    /users/sign_in(.:format)       {:action=>"new", :controller=>"devise/sessions"}
            user_session POST   /users/sign_in(.:format)       {:action=>"create", :controller=>"devise/sessions"}
    destroy_user_session DELETE /users/sign_out(.:format)      {:action=>"destroy", :controller=>"devise/sessions"}
           user_password POST   /users/password(.:format)      {:action=>"create", :controller=>"devise/passwords"}
       new_user_password GET    /users/password/new(.:format)  {:action=>"new", :controller=>"devise/passwords"}
      edit_user_password GET    /users/password/edit(.:format) {:action=>"edit", :controller=>"devise/passwords"}
                         PUT    /users/password(.:format)      {:action=>"update", :controller=>"devise/passwords"}
cancel_user_registration GET    /users/cancel(.:format)        {:action=>"cancel", :controller=>"devise/registrations"}
       user_registration POST   /users(.:format)               {:action=>"create", :controller=>"devise/registrations"}
   new_user_registration GET    /users/sign_up(.:format)       {:action=>"new", :controller=>"devise/registrations"}
  edit_user_registration GET    /users/edit(.:format)          {:action=>"edit", :controller=>"devise/registrations"}
                         PUT    /users(.:format)               {:action=>"update", :controller=>"devise/registrations"}
                         DELETE /users(.:format)               {:action=>"destroy", :controller=>"devise/registrations"}
                    root        /                              {:controller=>"pages", :action=>"home"

and here is routes.rb:

  get "tasks/index"

  get "tasks/show"

  devise_for :users

  root :to => 'pages#home'

Why is this?? What I am doing wrong?

Edit2: By the way, I forgot mentioning that Task belongs_to User, and the User model has been generated by devise. Which probably is whats causing this. Can’t I access /tasks/index without /user/id/tasks/?

Edit: more weird stuff, I tried using resources :tasks in my routes file, instead of the ‘get’ routes for that controller, and now when I click on <%= link_to 'Tasks', :controller => 'tasks', :action => 'index' %> it takes me to the show action. So something is really wrong with my routes, apparently.

Answer 1

The problem is with ‘devise’ namespace. When you use link creation this way:

<%= link_to 'Tasks', :controller => 'tasks', :action => 'index' %>

then the route is generated from the current namespace, which is ‘devise’ when you click any devise link.

To avoid this behavior, you can either use the route this way:

<%= link_to 'Tasks', :controller => '/tasks', :action => 'index' %>

or use helpers, which work correctly in this situation (tasks_index_path in case of ‘get “tasks/index”‘ in routes.rb, or tasks_path in case of resources :tasks)