Question

What’s the standard way to structure a Rails app’s semi-static web pages?

I come from a LAMP background and traditionally I’d have pages such as this:

about.php
index.php
common/
    header.php
    footer.php
    scripts.php
    (etc)
sign-up.php
scripts/
    jQuery.js
    etc
styles/
    main.css
(etc)

Inside those files, there would be a php include for the header, footer, etc.

Should I generate a controller called Pages?

Answer 1

To answer your question straight: don’t create a Controller for shared layout … But follow the advice below:

1.about.php, index.php, sign-up.php:

about and index actions could be gathered in a controller, generally I name it Static.

So logically, views would be in /app/views/static/

For sign_up it would depend on your choice: whether or not you want it to stick to your User model. Generally, it goes to some Registration controller.

2.common/ header.php, footer.php, scripts.phpwould become:

layouts/_header.html.erb, _footer.html.erb, _scripts.html.erb + you should create a layout including these partials.

3.scripts/jQuery.js and styles/main.css will go to /public/javascriptsand /public/stylesheets (at least for Rails 3.0.x)