Question

I have a form to update an attribute of a model – I don’t want it to go to the standard update action I want it to go to a different action.

<% for car in @cars %>
 <%= form_for car, :url => { :action => "custom_action/#{car.id}" } do |f| -%>

This is giving the following error –

No route matches {:action=>"custom_action/1", :controller=>"cars"}

However if I visit the url – custom_action/1 – I don’t get the routing error.

Any idea why I can’t do this?

Answer 1

In addition to what Frederick Cheung said about GET vs POST vs PUT, I think your code might be wrong in general.

To do exactly what you want, try:

form_for car, :url => {:action => "custom_action", :id => car, :controller => "cars"} do |f|

I don’t think this is a good idea, and will probably cause you pain. I suggest taking a look at the Ruby on Rails Routing Guide, to understand how to do this properly. (Routing is a topic where I always have to consult the manual.)

With correct routes your code should look something like this:

form_for car, custom_action_car_path(car) do |f|

Which will be easier to change in the future if/when you refactor your app.