Rails - Feb 2007 - Routes and link generation

Hi,
I''m setting up some routes for an online shop. I want to the urls to
look like:

/category/department/product

The problem I''m having is how to generate the urls needed. Do I have to
specify
the category and department for each link? The problem is that a product can be
in more than one category so I won''t know what to pass.

I currently have this in routes.rb:

map.with_options :controller => ''catalog'' do |catalog|
	catalog.product '':category/:department/:id'', :action =>
''show''
end

And this as my link:

<%= link_to ''A special banana'', product_url(:category =>
''fruit'',
:department => ''bananas'', :id => 444) %>

Do I need to override to_param for the product? If so, how?

Thanks for any advice.

Cheers,
Jord

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Not sure if I was clear enough. What I don''t understand is how to
figure out which category and department a product is so that I can
generate the links.

Am I making too much work for myself by have the routes setup like I
want? Is it possible to have routes like this or would it be better to
go for something like:

/product/1

I think a route like /category/department/product is a lot more
readable and can already do this if a product only appears in one
category, but I''m not sure how to go about it when a product is in
more than one category.

What do you think?


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If you''ve set up your route like so

map.product "/:category/:department/:product", :controller => [...]

then you should be able to generate the url like this

product_url(:category => category, :department => :department). If
you''re
looking to avoid the numeric representations of category and department,
then make sure to redefine to_params in your models for each.

class Category
[...]
  def to_params
    name # Or whatever attribute you want...
  end
end

Is that what you''re looking for?

RSL

On 2/28/07, jordan.elver-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org
<jordan.elver-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
>
>
> Not sure if I was clear enough. What I don''t understand is how to
> figure out which category and department a product is so that I can
> generate the links.
>
> Am I making too much work for myself by have the routes setup like I
> want? Is it possible to have routes like this or would it be better to
> go for something like:
>
> /product/1
>
> I think a route like /category/department/product is a lot more
> readable and can already do this if a product only appears in one
> category, but I''m not sure how to go about it when a product is in
> more than one category.
>
> What do you think?
>
>
> >
>
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Thanks for the reply Russell, but that''s what I have already.

The problem was with generating a route to a product that exists in
more than one department. Sya I was generating a route to a product
from the home page, I wouldn''t know which category to put for the url.
Anyway, I''ve decided that it''s probably more effect than
it''s worth.
So, I''ve decided to go for /product/123-product-name for my product
urls and stick with /category/department for category display.

Thanks anyway :)

Cheers,
Jord

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I don''t understand why

product_url(:category => category, :department => department)

wouldn''t assign category based solely on the fact that you manually
told it
which category to use. I''ve never had the multiple category setup but I
can''t imagine that Rails wouldn''t respond to setting a param
manually.

RSL

On 3/2/07, Jordan Elver
<jordan.elver-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
>
>
> Thanks for the reply Russell, but that''s what I have already.
>
> The problem was with generating a route to a product that exists in
> more than one department. Sya I was generating a route to a product
> from the home page, I wouldn''t know which category to put for the
url.
> Anyway, I''ve decided that it''s probably more effect than
it''s worth.
> So, I''ve decided to go for /product/123-product-name for my
product
> urls and stick with /category/department for category display.
>
> Thanks anyway :)
>
> Cheers,
> Jord
>
> >
>
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> I don''t understand why
>
> product_url(:category => category, :department => department)
>
> wouldn''t assign category based solely on the fact that you
manually told it
> which category to use. I''ve never had the multiple category setup
but I
> can''t imagine that Rails wouldn''t respond to setting a
param manually.
It will, but say that I have a product which appears in both category
A and B, how will I know which category, either A or B, to pass to
product_url? It works ok if you are within the category when
generating the route because you can grab the category from
params[:category], but if you''re not in the category, for example, on
the home page, you won''t know which category to pass to the
product_url because there are two categories associated with the
product.

Does that make sense? :)

Cheers,
Jord

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Jordan,

Jamis wrote about some of these issues recently:

http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2007/2/5/nesting-resources


~ j.

On 3/2/07, Jordan Elver
<jordan.elver-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
>
> > I don''t understand why
> >
> > product_url(:category => category, :department => department)
> >
> > wouldn''t assign category based solely on the fact that you
manually told it
> > which category to use. I''ve never had the multiple category
setup but I
> > can''t imagine that Rails wouldn''t respond to setting
a param manually.
>
> It will, but say that I have a product which appears in both category
> A and B, how will I know which category, either A or B, to pass to
> product_url? It works ok if you are within the category when
> generating the route because you can grab the category from
> params[:category], but if you''re not in the category, for example,
on
> the home page, you won''t know which category to pass to the
> product_url because there are two categories associated with the
> product.
>
> Does that make sense? :)
>
> Cheers,
> Jord
>
> >
>
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> Jamis wrote about some of these issues recently:
>
> http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2007/2/5/nesting-resources
Thanks, I''ll take a look :)

Cheers,
Jord

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Yeah. That does make sense. I guess if it weren''t coming from a
category-specific archive/page/whatever, what I''d do is pass it
product.categories.first. I just tested [in irb] this kind of setup and it
works nicely.

product_url(:category => @category || product.categories.first || nil,
:department => :whatever}

if @category is set, then it uses it, else the first product.category, and
if product.categories.empty? then it uses nil.

RSL

On 3/2/07, Jordan Elver
<jordan.elver-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
>
>
> > I don''t understand why
> >
> > product_url(:category => category, :department => department)
> >
> > wouldn''t assign category based solely on the fact that you
manually told
> it
> > which category to use. I''ve never had the multiple category
setup but I
> > can''t imagine that Rails wouldn''t respond to setting
a param manually.
>
> It will, but say that I have a product which appears in both category
> A and B, how will I know which category, either A or B, to pass to
> product_url? It works ok if you are within the category when
> generating the route because you can grab the category from
> params[:category], but if you''re not in the category, for example,
on
> the home page, you won''t know which category to pass to the
> product_url because there are two categories associated with the
> product.
>
> Does that make sense? :)
>
> Cheers,
> Jord
>
> >
>
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