Rails - Jan 2006 - Newbie: Static page without controller

Hello,

I''ve been through a few tutorials and have made some simple apps that 
interact with the database, but I''m having trouble doing something that
seems like it would be very simple.

Just imagine a static website that doesn''t interact with the database. 
You have pages like:
www.domain.com/home
www.domain.com/services
www.domain.com/more-stuff

Since these are static pages, I''d like to just create an rhtml file for
them and have them accessible from the root, as shown above.

So my question is, how do I get a static (r)html page to show on the 
root of the url? Creating a controller for each one seems to make it 
only accessible via a subfolder of the controller 
(www.domain/controller/services). Do I really have to create a 
controller for each of these pages? Is that the best way? What folder 
(under /views I assume) should these rhtml files go in?

This seems like such a simple thing, but I just can''t seem to figure it
out.

Thank you,

Brandon

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

There are two ways to do this:

1. Create controllers for every page, and put the static content in a 
"index.rhtml" view.

2. Use routes.rb to route these to a "static" controller:
2.1 Create a new controller called StaticController
2.2 Add the routes to routes.rb:
map.connect ''/services'', :controller =>
''static'', :action => ''services''
2.3 Put a services.rhtml in the app/views/static/ directory

I hope this helps,

Jules

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Jules Jacobs wrote:
> There are two ways to do this:
> 
> 1. Create controllers for every page, and put the static content in a 
> "index.rhtml" view.
> 
> 2. Use routes.rb to route these to a "static" controller:
> 2.1 Create a new controller called StaticController
> 2.2 Add the routes to routes.rb:
> map.connect ''/services'', :controller =>
''static'', :action => ''services''
> 2.3 Put a services.rhtml in the app/views/static/ directory
Or just put html files in public/...

-- 
Alex

Hi, Brandon.

You can drop your static files in your RAILS_ROOT/public/ directory.  
Remember, RAILS_ROOT in this case is not where Rails is installed,  
but rather the top level directory of your application. The public/  
directory lives at the same level as app/, components/, config/, etc.  
Then you can access your static pages as www.domain.com/home.rhtml, etc.

You could also create a single controller to handle static content  
and use the standard Rails file layout; e.g.,

app/controllers/static_controller.rb with methods like index(), home 
(), services(), etc.
app/views/static/index.rhtml
app/views/static/home.rhtml, etc.

You would then access your pages by visiting www.domain.com/static/ 
index, www.domain.com/static/home, etc.

I hope this makes sense. Feel free to ping me off-list if you''d like  
to talk about this further.

Regards,
David

On Jan 25, 2006, at 12:12 PM, Brandon Pearce wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I''ve been through a few tutorials and have made some simple apps
that
> interact with the database, but I''m having trouble doing something
> that
> seems like it would be very simple.
>
> Just imagine a static website that doesn''t interact with the
database.
> You have pages like:
> www.domain.com/home
> www.domain.com/services
> www.domain.com/more-stuff
>
> Since these are static pages, I''d like to just create an rhtml
file
> for
> them and have them accessible from the root, as shown above.
>
> So my question is, how do I get a static (r)html page to show on the
> root of the url? Creating a controller for each one seems to make it
> only accessible via a subfolder of the controller
> (www.domain/controller/services). Do I really have to create a
> controller for each of these pages? Is that the best way? What folder
> (under /views I assume) should these rhtml files go in?
>
> This seems like such a simple thing, but I just can''t seem to  
> figure it
> out.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Brandon
>
> -- 
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails

Brandon,

Assuming that your static pages do not need the layout templates from  
your controllers you can simply put the folders in your public  
directory.  However, you''ll need to specify the full url to the html  
file:

www.domain.com/home/index.html

Alternatively, you can create a StaticController that simply has  
empty methods for each page:

class StaticController < ActionController
	layout ''MyOtherController''

	def home
	end

	def services
	end
end


On Jan 25, 2006, at 2:12 PM, Brandon Pearce wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I''ve been through a few tutorials and have made some simple apps
that
> interact with the database, but I''m having trouble doing something
> that
> seems like it would be very simple.
>
> Just imagine a static website that doesn''t interact with the
database.
> You have pages like:
> www.domain.com/home
> www.domain.com/services
> www.domain.com/more-stuff
>
> Since these are static pages, I''d like to just create an rhtml
file
> for
> them and have them accessible from the root, as shown above.
>
> So my question is, how do I get a static (r)html page to show on the
> root of the url? Creating a controller for each one seems to make it
> only accessible via a subfolder of the controller
> (www.domain/controller/services). Do I really have to create a
> controller for each of these pages? Is that the best way? What folder
> (under /views I assume) should these rhtml files go in?
>
> This seems like such a simple thing, but I just can''t seem to  
> figure it
> out.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Brandon
>
> -- 
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>

Thank you for your quick response.

Which way do most people use? (I assume this is a common thing)

Creating controllers for each would be nice if you''re going to end up 
expanding the site. But if you have 100 static pages, that''s a lot of 
empty controllers, and a lot of folders with one file, which seems 
unnecessary. Plus, it seems like it would make more sense to name your 
.rhtml file after the page name.

Option number 2 seems better to me. Would I still have to add a line for 
each static page? I suppose that''s not such a big deal, although your 
routes.rb file could potentially get large. And if you deleted or 
renamed a page, you''d need to remember to make the change there, too.

Is there a way to just have a default controller that takes the page 
(url) you''ve requested, and checks to see if that file exists in the 
views/static/ directory, and if so, displays it?  (And if not, give a 
404?)

I guess somehow you''d have to also make sure that your static page
names
don''t conflict with other controller names you have. Or you could just 
say that if another controller exists with that name, it should take 
precedence and run that controller. Otherwise, load the static page.

Does this sound like a good solution? Is it possible? (I created 
something similar with PHP/Smarty once...)

Thank you.

Brandon

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

On Jan 25, 2006, at 11:19 AM, Jules Jacobs wrote:
> There are two ways to do this:
>
> 1. Create controllers for every page, and put the static content in a
> "index.rhtml" view.
>
> 2. Use routes.rb to route these to a "static" controller:
> 2.1 Create a new controller called StaticController
> 2.2 Add the routes to routes.rb:
> map.connect ''/services'', :controller =>
''static'', :action =>
> ''services''
> 2.3 Put a services.rhtml in the app/views/static/ directory
>
> I hope this helps,
>
> Jules
3. If your pages are truly just static html pages you can just put  
them in the public directoy and they will ''just work''.
	So if you had a file called home.html in your public dir you could  
access it with this url: www.domain.com/home
	Rails will automatically look for a file with the html exgtension in  
public before it send the request through the dispatcher.

Cheers-
-Ezra Zygmuntowicz
Yakima Herald-Republic
WebMaster
http://yakimaherald.com
509-577-7732
ezra@yakima-herald.com

Wow, I had more responses while I was replying. Thanks, guys - this 
forum is great!

Putting the files in the /public/ folder sounds like the solution I was 
looking for!  So simple. Thanks!

But if I''m understanding correctly - if I put the rhtml files in the 
/public/ folder, those pages won''t be able to use the same layout that 
the application controller defines? (meaning each static page would have 
to start with an html element and have the header and navigation, etc.?)

So if I wanted to use the layout, I would have to create a static 
controller of sorts and have separate methods for each page?  Is this 
the recommended solution? (how do you all do it, or does it depend on 
the app?)

Could you create a single function in your static controller that would 
somehow handle all page requests without having to edit the file each 
time you add a new page?


David Rupp wrote:
> Hi, Brandon.
> 
> You can drop your static files in your RAILS_ROOT/public/ directory.
> Remember, RAILS_ROOT in this case is not where Rails is installed,
> but rather the top level directory of your application. The public/
> directory lives at the same level as app/, components/, config/, etc.
> Then you can access your static pages as www.domain.com/home.rhtml, etc.
> 
> You could also create a single controller to handle static content
> and use the standard Rails file layout; e.g.,
> 
> app/controllers/static_controller.rb with methods like index(), home
> (), services(), etc.
> app/views/static/index.rhtml
> app/views/static/home.rhtml, etc.
> 
> You would then access your pages by visiting www.domain.com/static/
> index, www.domain.com/static/home, etc.
> 
> I hope this makes sense. Feel free to ping me off-list if you''d
like
> to talk about this further.
> 
> Regards,
> David

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

On Jan 25, 2006, at 11:38 AM, Brandon Pearce wrote:
> Thank you for your quick response.
>
> Which way do most people use? (I assume this is a common thing)
>
> Creating controllers for each would be nice if you''re going to end
up
> expanding the site. But if you have 100 static pages, that''s a lot
of
> empty controllers, and a lot of folders with one file, which seems
> unnecessary. Plus, it seems like it would make more sense to name your
> .rhtml file after the page name.
>
> Option number 2 seems better to me. Would I still have to add a  
> line for
> each static page? I suppose that''s not such a big deal, although
your
> routes.rb file could potentially get large. And if you deleted or
> renamed a page, you''d need to remember to make the change there,
too.
>
> Is there a way to just have a default controller that takes the page
> (url) you''ve requested, and checks to see if that file exists in
the
> views/static/ directory, and if so, displays it?  (And if not, give a
> 404?)
>
> I guess somehow you''d have to also make sure that your static page
> names
> don''t conflict with other controller names you have. Or you could
just
> say that if another controller exists with that name, it should take
> precedence and run that controller. Otherwise, load the static page.
>
> Does this sound like a good solution? Is it possible? (I created
> something similar with PHP/Smarty once...)
>
> Thank you.
>
> Brandon

Brandon-

	Here is a way to have a static controller that will automatically  
look for a .rhtml view file that matches the url requested without  
the need to add an action for each page:

class StaticController < ApplicationController

	def method_missing(action_name)
		# you can add a layout to this render call if you want to use one.
		render :action => action_name.to_s
	end

end

    With that controller a request to http://example.com/static/foo   
would render the app/views/static/foo.rhtml  view template. This  
allows you to add as many static templates to the app/views/static  
dir as you want and they will all be picked up automatically when you  
add them. If they don''t exist a request will just invoke your 404  
error handler.


Cheers-
-Ezra Zygmuntowicz
Yakima Herald-Republic
WebMaster
http://yakimaherald.com
509-577-7732
ezra@yakima-herald.com

You don''t even need that much code.  Rails will render the view if
there is
no action in the controller and the view template exists, e.g.  This will
work:

  URL - 
  /static/foo

  Controller - static_controller.rb - 
  class StaticController < ....
	# No Actions Defined
  end

  View - static/foo.rhtml - 
  # Whatever you want to display


Add as many view files as you want without changing the controller.

You can add to the controller to set your layout for static files:

  Controller - 
  class StaticController < ....
	layout :static_layout
	# No Actions Defined
  end


-----Original Message-----
From: rails-bounces@lists.rubyonrails.org
[mailto:rails-bounces@lists.rubyonrails.org] On Behalf Of Ezra Zygmuntowicz
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 11:48 AM
To: rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
Subject: Re: [Rails] Re: Newbie: Static page without controller


On Jan 25, 2006, at 11:38 AM, Brandon Pearce wrote:
> Thank you for your quick response.
>
> Which way do most people use? (I assume this is a common thing)
>
> Creating controllers for each would be nice if you''re going to end
up
> expanding the site. But if you have 100 static pages, that''s a lot
of
> empty controllers, and a lot of folders with one file, which seems
> unnecessary. Plus, it seems like it would make more sense to name your
> .rhtml file after the page name.
>
> Option number 2 seems better to me. Would I still have to add a  
> line for
> each static page? I suppose that''s not such a big deal, although
your
> routes.rb file could potentially get large. And if you deleted or
> renamed a page, you''d need to remember to make the change there,
too.
>
> Is there a way to just have a default controller that takes the page
> (url) you''ve requested, and checks to see if that file exists in
the
> views/static/ directory, and if so, displays it?  (And if not, give a
> 404?)
>
> I guess somehow you''d have to also make sure that your static page
> names
> don''t conflict with other controller names you have. Or you could
just
> say that if another controller exists with that name, it should take
> precedence and run that controller. Otherwise, load the static page.
>
> Does this sound like a good solution? Is it possible? (I created
> something similar with PHP/Smarty once...)
>
> Thank you.
>
> Brandon

Brandon-

	Here is a way to have a static controller that will automatically  
look for a .rhtml view file that matches the url requested without  
the need to add an action for each page:

class StaticController < ApplicationController

	def method_missing(action_name)
		# you can add a layout to this render call if you want to
use one.
		render :action => action_name.to_s
	end

end

    With that controller a request to http://example.com/static/foo   
would render the app/views/static/foo.rhtml  view template. This  
allows you to add as many static templates to the app/views/static  
dir as you want and they will all be picked up automatically when you  
add them. If they don''t exist a request will just invoke your 404  
error handler.


Cheers-
-Ezra Zygmuntowicz
Yakima Herald-Republic
WebMaster
http://yakimaherald.com
509-577-7732
ezra@yakima-herald.com



_______________________________________________
Rails mailing list
Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails

Thanks!

That last solution looks great!
Now to my original question:
How do you make it work going to:

www.domain.com/foo

instead of:

www.domain/static/foo


-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Routes to the rescue.

In your routes.rb file, before the map.catchall line, you can add something
like this:

	map.connect ":action", :controller => ''static''

Now /foo will invoke StaticController#foo

-----Original Message-----
From: rails-bounces@lists.rubyonrails.org
[mailto:rails-bounces@lists.rubyonrails.org] On Behalf Of Brandon Pearce
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 12:06 PM
To: rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
Subject: [Rails] RE: Re: Newbie: Static page without controller

Thanks!

That last solution looks great!
Now to my original question:
How do you make it work going to:

www.domain.com/foo

instead of:

www.domain/static/foo


-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
_______________________________________________
Rails mailing list
Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails

> 	map.connect ":action", :controller =>
''static''
> 
> Now /foo will invoke StaticController#foo
Cool. And will I still be able to have non-static pages run by other 
controllers the normal way? Or will this make everything go through the 
static controller?

Example:
domain.com/services - goes to a static page
domain.com/whatever - goes to a static page
domain.com/customers/add - goes to the add customer page

Still possible with this configuration?

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Yes, but the line for the static controller must be after the ones for the
specific controllers.  Routes are processed in order, and the first one to
apply to the current request is used.

-----Original Message-----
From: rails-bounces@lists.rubyonrails.org
[mailto:rails-bounces@lists.rubyonrails.org] On Behalf Of Brandon Pearce
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 12:18 PM
To: rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
Subject: [Rails] RE: RE: Re: Newbie: Static page without controller
> 	map.connect ":action", :controller =>
''static''
> 
> Now /foo will invoke StaticController#foo
Cool. And will I still be able to have non-static pages run by other 
controllers the normal way? Or will this make everything go through the 
static controller?

Example:
domain.com/services - goes to a static page
domain.com/whatever - goes to a static page
domain.com/customers/add - goes to the add customer page

Still possible with this configuration?

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
_______________________________________________
Rails mailing list
Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails

On 1/25/06, Brandon Pearce <reg@brandags.com>
wrote:
> >       map.connect ":action", :controller =>
''static''
> >
> > Now /foo will invoke StaticController#foo
>
> Cool. And will I still be able to have non-static pages run by other
> controllers the normal way? Or will this make everything go through the
> static controller?
>
> Example:
> domain.com/services - goes to a static page
> domain.com/whatever - goes to a static page
> domain.com/customers/add - goes to the add customer page
>
> Still possible with this configuration?
Yes, keep in mind however:

domain.com/customers - goes to static/customers, not customers/index

For those who have developed apps that have different levels of account 
quotas in regards to total file upload space, how are you managing it?  
Are you keeping track of the total uploaded bytes in an Account model or 
are you using OS quota mechanisms?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Sean