Introducing The Controller

Now we're getting into the beating heart of rails, and the brain of the application.

Transcript

1. Nola On Rails Session 7 The Controller
2. Retrospective • We talked about the database ◦ What it is ◦ What it does ◦ Why we need it • We talked about ODMs ◦ That they handle the database ◦ They give us Models ◦ They can be large or small • We talked about Models ◦ How they are concepts inside your database ◦ That they define the concept, both in function and behavior • We briefly used rails console
3. The Overview of MVC • Rails is a MVC framework, like many others • MVC is an acronym that stands for: ◦ Model ◦ View ◦ Controller • The controller is an important part of a large application • It determines how to interact with all of your resources • It handles the response to all requests
4. Creating A Controller • To get details on creating a controller run rails generate controller • If you want Rails to do more than that use rails generate scaffold_controller • We'll make a blank controller using rails generate controller pages • And a scaffolded controller for our stories rails generate scaffold_controller story
5. The Controller Anatomy • Controllers will be inside app/controllers/ • Each controller file contains a Ruby class • This Ruby class inherits from ApplicationController • The class contains a series of methods which are actually controller actions
6. ApplicationController • The ApplicationController is like the father of all controllers • It's located at app/controllers/application_contr oler.rb • Things, like actions or methods, defined here will be accessible to other controllers • Add this line to the class: APP_NAME = "Fantastory" • We've defined a Constant, the other controllers will have this variable too
7. A Peek Into Actions • Back in our PagesController add a method called splash • In the definition of that method write: render text: APP_NAME + " - It's so cool!" • The render method tells the controller what to respond with • We're combining the APP_NAME value ("Fantastory") with this other text
8. Routes • A route is traditionally defined as a path from A to B • Rails routes are the defined paths to resources of an application • A route generally is comprised of: ◦ A resource /accounts/ ◦ An id /accounts/5 ◦ An action on the member /accounts/5/edit ◦ These are not hard fast rules • The Routes are defined in config/routes.rb
9. Setting Up Your Routes • Open the routes folder • You should see a lot of documentation • We're going to add a custom route and a root route • The first route will be pointing to our new PagesController action splash • Write: get "/splash", controller: : pages, action: :splash • Now start your database, server, and open your browser to http://localhost:3000/splash • Now write: root to: "pages#splash"
10. Resources • http://guides.rubyonrails.org/routing.html