Rails - Jul 2008 - handling multiple lookup tables in rails

I''ve got an application that will have a handful of lookup tables. To
be clear by this I mean tables that only have two attributes, id, name
and are used to provide drop-down lists for other tables/forms so that
these fields have "standard" values. I need 5 to 10 of these tables.
     I''m a ruby/rails neophyte but I''ve read Agile Web Devel
with
Rails, Rails Recipes, Adv Rails Recipes so I think I understand the
basics but this has me stumped. The models/views/controllers for all
these lookup tables are identical. I would think there would be a way
to have 1 Controller (e.g. LookupController) 1 set of views (in
directory /lookups) and a model for each lookup table. Then the Lookup
controller would (possibly with a before_filter) figure out which
lookuptable I want to edit (possibly with a route such as
(lookup/:model) where :model would be the name of the lookup table I
want to edit.
    Can anyone point me to either some documentation or provide hints
on how to do this sort of thing cleanly?
    Below is the code I''m playing around with....

thanks


in routes I''ve got

# lookups/CollectionType/lookups
#lookups/Gender/lookups

map.resources :lookups, :path_prefix => ''lookups/:mdl''

ex Lookup Controller


class LookupsController < ApplicationController
  # GET /lookup
  # GET /lookup.xml
before_filter :setup_tables

  def index
    @lookups = @theModel.find(:all)

    respond_to do |format|
      format.html # index.html.erb
      format.xml  { render :xml => @lookups }
    end
  end

  # GET /lookup/1
  # GET /lookup/1.xml
  def show
    @lookup = @theModel.find(params[:id])

    respond_to do |format|
      format.html # show.html.erb
      format.xml  { render :xml => @lookup }
    end
  end

  # GET /lookup/new
  # GET /lookup/new.xml
  def new
    @lookup = @theModel.new

    respond_to do |format|
      format.html # new.html.erb
      format.xml  { render :xml => @lookup }
    end
  end

  # GET /lookup/1/edit
  def edit
    @lookup = @theModel.find(params[:id])

  end

  # POST /lookup
  # POST /lookup.xml
  def create
    @lookup = @theModel.new(params[:lookup])


    respond_to do |format|
      if @lookup.save
        flash[:notice] = ''Lookup value was successfully
created.''
        format.html { redirect_to(@lookup,:mdl=>@mdl) }
        format.xml  { render :xml => @lookup, :status
=> :created, :location => @lookup }
      else
        format.html { render :action => "new" }
        format.xml  { render :xml => @lookup.errors, :status
=> :unprocessable_entity }
      end
    end
  end

  # PUT /lookup/1
  # PUT /lookup/1.xml
  def update
    @lookup = @theModel.find(params[:id])

    respond_to do |format|
      if @lookup.update_attributes(params[:lookup])
        flash[:notice] = ''Lookup was successfully updated.''
        format.html { redirect_to(@lookup,:mdl=>@mdl) }
        format.xml  { head :ok }
      else
        format.html { render :action => "edit" }
        format.xml  { render :xml => @lookup.errors, :status
=> :unprocessable_entity }
      end
    end
  end

  # DELETE /lookup/1
  # DELETE /lookup/1.xml
  def destroy
    @lookup = @theModel.find(params[:id])
    @lookup.destroy

    respond_to do |format|
      format.html { redirect_to(lookups_url, :mdl=>@mdl) }
      format.xml  { head :ok }
    end
  end

  private
    def setup_tables
      # I assume there is some way to instantiate a class with a
string name but I did this
      # just to try to get something working
      if params[:mdl] == "CollectionType"
        @mdl = params[:mdl]
        @theModel = CollectionType
     else if params[:mdl] == "Gender"
        @mdl = params[:mdl]
        @theModel = Gender

      end

      @lookupTbl = @theModel.find(:all)
    end
end

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