Question

I am working on a rails application (I have some experience with rails). But, this time I am using RESTful to build it. I am wondering how do I validate my models in a RESTful fashion? What I mean by that is when a user enters data into a form, but the model validations prevent the model from being created what is a RESTful way to redirect the user back to the new action with the data they entered still present in the form?

Answer 1

Josh – you mention wanting to know how to redirect the user back to create if it errored out. If you are use to earlier versions of Rails just make sure you are using the form_for helper rather then the start_form_tag from early. Your controller code will look pretty similar to how you might be used to… for example (a Customer model):

def create   @customer = Customer.new(params[:customer])   if @customer.save     flash[:notice] = 'Customer was successfully created.'     redirect_to(@customer)   else     render :action => 'new'   end end 

You’ll notice now the redirect_to(@customer) that forwards to the record that was created in the transaction. But on failure it’s the same old render :action.