From 0a9a80b2db4f86588400f1fc85f72eab95a9911a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Mike Gunderloy Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2008 07:11:44 -0500 Subject: Updates to nested/shallow routes discussion in "Routing from the Outside In" guide. Added guidance on avoiding deeply-nested routes, further explanation of :shallow, show example of :has_many and :shallow together. --- railties/doc/guides/routing/routing_outside_in.txt | 21 ++++++++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 20 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) (limited to 'railties') diff --git a/railties/doc/guides/routing/routing_outside_in.txt b/railties/doc/guides/routing/routing_outside_in.txt index aecfb949e9..13d8a8b732 100644 --- a/railties/doc/guides/routing/routing_outside_in.txt +++ b/railties/doc/guides/routing/routing_outside_in.txt @@ -455,7 +455,9 @@ However, without the use of +name_prefix => nil+, deeply-nested resources quickl /publishers/1/magazines/2/photos/3 ------------------------------------------------------- -The corresponding route helper would be +publisher_magazine_photo_url+, requiring you to specify objects at all three levels. +The corresponding route helper would be +publisher_magazine_photo_url+, requiring you to specify objects at all three levels. Indeed, this situation is confusing enough that a popular link:http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2007/2/5/nesting-resources[article] by Jamis Buck proposes a rule of thumb for good Rails design: + +_Resources should never be nested more than 1 level deep._ ==== Shallow Nesting @@ -479,6 +481,23 @@ This will enable recognition of (among others) these routes: /magazines/2/photos ==> magazines_photos_path(2) /photos/3 ==> photo_path(3) ------------------------------------------------------- + +With shallow nesting, you need only supply enough information to uniquely identify the resource that you want to work with - but you _can_ supply more information. All of the nested routes continue to work, just as they would without shallow nesting, but less-deeply nested routes (even direct routes) work as well. So, with the declaration above, all of these routes refer to the same resource: + +------------------------------------------------------- +/publishers/1/magazines/2/photos/3 ==> publisher_magazine_photo_path(1,2,3) +/magazines/2/photos/3 ==> magazine_photo_path(2,3) +/photos/3 ==> photo_path(3) +------------------------------------------------------- + +Shallow nesting gives you the flexibility to use the shorter direct routes when you like, while still preserving the longer nested routes for times when they add code clarity. + +If you like, you can combine shallow nesting with the +:has_one+ and +:has_many+ options: + +[source, ruby] +------------------------------------------------------- +map.resources :publishers, :has_many => { :magazines => :photos }, :shallow => true +------------------------------------------------------- === Adding More RESTful Actions -- cgit v1.2.3