Question

I have a Scouts model that requires two actions in addition to the standard REST actions, check_in and check_out. So I have my route as:

resources :scouts do
  member do
    get 'check_in'
    get 'check_out'
   end
end

But I need to display the show.html to the user, with a link to check_in the Scout or check_out the scout. In order to utilize the same show.html view and keep only one show action in ScoutsController, I pass ?mode=check_in or ?mode=check_out appended to the url to designate this is not a regular show action and thus display “Check In” and “Check Out” links.

I thought about creating a check_in and check_out resource, but that doesn’t seem to fit the model of REST as checking in/out is an action and not a resource.

Is there a better way to handle this RESTfully?

Update: The mode comes from different users with differing agendas (i.e. workflows). One user may need to show and edit Scout data, while another will only be performing check_in activities.

But, the user that is performing check_in activities may need to edit. For example, the user performing check_in activities may spot an error in Scout data, fix it by editing, and return to their check_in activity. Passing the mode allows me to determine the users agenda. Also, adding the mode allows me to use only one show/edit/etc view and just display the appropriate links based on it.

I could put mode in the session hash. Either way, same result.

The benefit is a very simple user interface (for very simple users).

Seems to me that the Scout is the resource and check_in and check_out are the actions. But using the mode seems awkward. But maybe it really is the best way. That’s my question.

Answer 1

It would appear to me that check_in and check_out relate to a registration, so I would think that you need another resource for registrations. check_in would map to create and check_out would map to destroy.

  resources :registrations

  match 'check_in', :to => "registrations#create", :as => "check_in"
  match 'check_out', :to => 'registrations#destroy', :as => "check_out"