Rails - Sep 2005 - Adding Categories to the Depot example in the Agile Rails book

Hi ya, I want to add categories to the depot example in the Agile rails 
book.
These are my thoughts:

Create a new table called categories with id, title, description, and 
image fields.
Add a new field to the products table called category_id
Create a model called Category with "has_many :products"

Now I should have a one to many link between the products and categories 
tables?

Now I need to edit the Store Controller''s index method to display a
list
of categories instead of products

def index
    @category = Category.list_all
end

and in the Category model add a list_all method like this:

def self.list_all
    find(:all)
end

and finally in the Store index view (/store/index.rhtml)

<% for category in @categories -%>
        <img src="<%= category.image_url %>"/>
        <h3><%= h(category.title) %></h3>
        <%= category.description %>
<% end %>

Does this sound correct so far?

Thanks for reading this far :) Kris

Hi,

Kris Leech wrote:
> Hi ya, I want to add categories to the depot example in the 
> Agile rails book. (...)
have a look at 
http://www.onlamp.com/lpt/a/5546
The Cookbook-Example described there does exactly what you are looking for.
It can be easily adopt (I am doing so right now :)).

HTH
~Tobias

Thanks for the link that has clarified what I was thinking.

But...

I have soon  run in to a problem - how to separate the customer and 
admin sides of an app.
In the Depot app there is an admin controller with the usual scaffold to 
edit, destroy, create products.
But as soon as you add another table (ie categories) that needs admin 
functions where do they go?
The admin controller already has edit, new, destroy methods for working 
with the products model.

Some ways I thought up:

1.) Prefix all admin methods with the model to which they apply, so: 
product_edit, product_new, product_destroy, category_edit, category_new, 
category_destroy.
This way you only have to maintain security for one controller and not 
try and have customer facing methods (list) without security and admin 
method (new, destroy, edit) with security.

2.) I guess you could get rid of the admin controller and have separate 
controllers for products and categories with scaffolding but then there 
would be either no security or customer facing methods like show would 
ask for a log-in!

3.) Two separate apps one for customer and one for admin.

I guess there is a standard way?

Thanks again, K.

Tobias Jordans wrote:
>Hi,
>
>Kris Leech wrote:
>  
>
>>Hi ya, I want to add categories to the depot example in the 
>>Agile rails book. (...)
>>    
>>
>
>have a look at 
>http://www.onlamp.com/lpt/a/5546
>The Cookbook-Example described there does exactly what you are looking for.
>It can be easily adopt (I am doing so right now :)).
>
>HTH
>~Tobias 
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Rails mailing list
>Rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org
>http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>
>
>  
>

-- 
Interkonect Services UK Ltd.
Boundary House 
Main Street
Hoveringham
Nottingham
NG147 JR

web: www.interkonect.com
tel: 0115 9663696
fax: 0115 9663696

Tobias Jordans wrote:
> Kris Leech wrote:
>>I have soon  run in to a problem - how to separate the customer and 
>>admin sides of an app.
>>In the Depot app there is an admin controller with the usual 
>>scaffold to 
>>edit, destroy, create products.
>>But as soon as you add another table (ie categories) that needs admin 
>>functions where do they go?
>>The admin controller already has edit, new, destroy methods 
>>for working 
>>with the products model.
> 
> 
> I had exactly the same problem and deleted my tryout-webapp three times
> until I understood that the book is just ignoring the fact, that the for
> excample order-management should be part of /admin/ as well.
> 
> I would be interested in an good solution for this as well!
script/generate controller ''admin/product''
script/generate controller ''admin/categories''
script/generate controller ''admin/foobar''

should do the trick.
> PS: Who can tell me what exacty "h()" does and why at some places
> "#{somecode}" is used (whats it for?)?
h() is an alias for html_escape in ERB::Util.
http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib/erb/rdoc is your friend here.

"#{somecode}" is just a way of interpolating the result of a ruby
expression into a string variable.

-- 
Alex

Hi Kris!

Kris Leech wrote:

Note: This post is more about admin-interface and url-naming than about ist
actual topic but I dont wanna change the subject since it''s allready
hard
enough to find postings that belong together ;).
> I have soon  run in to a problem - how to separate the customer and 
> admin sides of an app.
> In the Depot app there is an admin controller with the usual 
> scaffold to 
> edit, destroy, create products.
> But as soon as you add another table (ie categories) that needs admin 
> functions where do they go?
> The admin controller already has edit, new, destroy methods 
> for working 
> with the products model.
I had exactly the same problem and deleted my tryout-webapp three times
until I understood that the book is just ignoring the fact, that the for
excample order-management should be part of /admin/ as well.

I would be interested in an good solution for this as well!
> Some ways I thought up:
> 
> 1.) Prefix all admin methods with the model to which they apply, so: 
> product_edit, product_new, product_destroy, category_edit, 
> category_new, 
> category_destroy.
> This way you only have to maintain security for one 
> controller and not 
> try and have customer facing methods (list) without security 
> and admin 
> method (new, destroy, edit) with security.
I thought about this as well. But this would mean some stupid search and
replace through the file for some times... 
And you can use the scaffold-generator only once since otherwise your
(changed) file will be overwritten.
This doesnt sound like a propper rails-way to do it :).

> 2.) I guess you could get rid of the admin controller and 
> have separate 
> controllers for products and categories with scaffolding but 
> then there 
> would be either no security or customer facing methods like 
> show would 
> ask for a log-in!
Thats the way I am trying to solve it right now. 
But I didnt address the problem of login yet.
But there sould be a way to say rails that some controllers need a login,
some dont...
Another thing that i would like to add then is the "/admin/" url-part
so
make clear that this part of the app belongs to the admin-area. Probably
this has to be done with there URL-Rewrite-Methods?

Btw: I prefere using the "scaffold :model"-line instead of the
scraffold-generator for this since your app isnt packed with the
defaultcode...

> 3.) Two separate apps one for customer and one for admin.
Thats interesting as well!
But is this the "railsway"?

> I guess there is a standard way?
hope someone will tell us ;)


~Tobias

PS: Who can tell me what exacty "h()" does and why at some places
"#{somecode}" is used (whats it for?)?

Hi,


A bit further on in the book (p.126 in the pdf) there is an example of 
how to call an authorize method as a before_filter, either globally or 
just within a single class.
It also shows an :except parameter which says which methods won''t 
require login.


Is this what you''re looking for?


Cheers
James

Tobias Jordans wrote:
> 
> Thats the way I am trying to solve it right now. 
> But I didnt address the problem of login yet.
> But there sould be a way to say rails that some controllers need a login,
> some dont...
> Another thing that i would like to add then is the "/admin/"
url-part so
> make clear that this part of the app belongs to the admin-area. Probably
> this has to be done with there URL-Rewrite-Methods?
> 
>