Question

So far when learning Ruby and Ruby on Rails I keep encountering the syntax

ActionController::Base

And have never clarified exactly what it means. Why the :: instead of say, a slash? Wouldn’t ActionController/Base be more specific?

For example, while using the Globalize3 gem I added to my model the line

class About < ActiveRecord::Base
  translates :message
end

I get the generated model named MonthlyPost::Translation, but that doesn’t explain much. Where exactly are these stored, and what does the :: mean? Any thoughts would be wonderful. Thanks.

Answer 1

ActionController::Base means find the class Base in the module ActionController.

It’s a way of organising your classes, and also to avoid conflicts with classes made by others.

Here is a good article explaining how to use Modules for namespaces.