1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
1001
1002
1003
1004
1005
1006
1007
1008
1009
1010
1011
1012
1013
1014
1015
1016
1017
1018
1019
1020
1021
1022
1023
1024
1025
1026
1027
1028
1029
1030
1031
1032
1033
1034
1035
1036
1037
1038
1039
1040
1041
1042
1043
1044
1045
1046
1047
1048
1049
1050
1051
1052
1053
1054
1055
1056
1057
1058
1059
1060
1061
1062
1063
1064
1065
1066
1067
1068
1069
1070
1071
1072
1073
1074
1075
1076
1077
1078
1079
1080
1081
1082
1083
1084
1085
1086
1087
1088
1089
1090
1091
1092
1093
1094
1095
1096
1097
1098
1099
1100
1101
1102
1103
1104
1105
1106
1107
1108
1109
1110
1111
1112
1113
1114
1115
1116
1117
1118
1119
1120
1121
1122
1123
1124
1125
1126
1127
1128
1129
1130
1131
1132
1133
1134
1135
1136
1137
1138
1139
1140
1141
1142
1143
1144
1145
1146
1147
1148
1149
1150
1151
1152
1153
1154
1155
1156
1157
1158
1159
1160
1161
1162
1163
1164
1165
1166
1167
1168
1169
1170
1171
1172
1173
1174
1175
1176
1177
1178
1179
1180
1181
1182
1183
1184
1185
1186
1187
1188
1189
1190
1191
1192
1193
1194
1195
1196
1197
1198
1199
1200
1201
1202
1203
1204
1205
1206
1207
1208
1209
1210
1211
1212
1213
1214
1215
1216
1217
1218
1219
1220
1221
1222
1223
1224
1225
1226
1227
1228
1229
1230
1231
1232
1233
1234
1235
1236
1237
1238
1239
1240
1241
1242
1243
1244
1245
1246
1247
1248
1249
1250
1251
1252
1253
1254
1255
1256
1257
1258
1259
1260
1261
1262
1263
1264
1265
1266
1267
1268
1269
1270
1271
1272
1273
1274
1275
1276
1277
1278
1279
1280
1281
1282
1283
1284
1285
1286
1287
1288
1289
1290
1291
1292
1293
1294
1295
1296
1297
1298
1299
1300
1301
1302
1303
1304
1305
1306
1307
1308
1309
1310
1311
1312
1313
1314
1315
1316
1317
1318
1319
1320
1321
1322
1323
1324
1325
1326
1327
1328
1329
1330
1331
1332
1333
1334
1335
1336
1337
1338
1339
1340
1341
1342
1343
1344
1345
1346
1347
1348
1349
1350
1351
1352
1353
1354
1355
1356
1357
1358
1359
1360
1361
1362
1363
1364
1365
1366
1367
1368
1369
1370
1371
1372
1373
1374
1375
1376
1377
1378
1379
1380
1381
1382
1383
1384
1385
1386
1387
1388
1389
1390
1391
1392
1393
1394
1395
1396
1397
1398
1399
1400
1401
1402
1403
1404
1405
1406
1407
1408
1409
1410
1411
1412
1413
1414
1415
1416
1417
1418
1419
1420
1421
1422
1423
1424
1425
1426
1427
1428
1429
1430
1431
1432
1433
1434
1435
1436
1437
1438
1439
1440
1441
1442
1443
1444
1445
1446
1447
1448
1449
1450
1451
1452
1453
1454
1455
1456
1457
1458
1459
1460
1461
1462
1463
1464
1465
1466
1467
1468
1469
1470
1471
1472
1473
1474
1475
1476
1477
1478
1479
1480
1481
1482
1483
1484
1485
1486
1487
1488
1489
1490
1491
1492
1493
1494
1495
1496
1497
1498
1499
1500
1501
1502
1503
1504
1505
1506
1507
1508
1509
1510
1511
1512
1513
1514
1515
1516
1517
1518
1519
1520
1521
1522
1523
1524
1525
1526
1527
1528
1529
1530
1531
1532
1533
1534
1535
1536
1537
1538
1539
1540
1541
1542
1543
1544
1545
1546
1547
1548
1549
1550
1551
1552
1553
1554
1555
1556
1557
1558
1559
1560
1561
1562
1563
1564
1565
1566
1567
1568
1569
1570
1571
1572
1573
1574
1575
1576
1577
1578
1579
1580
1581
1582
1583
1584
1585
1586
1587
1588
1589
1590
1591
1592
1593
1594
1595
1596
1597
1598
1599
1600
1601
1602
1603
1604
1605
1606
1607
1608
1609
1610
1611
1612
1613
1614
1615
1616
1617
1618
1619
1620
1621
1622
1623
1624
1625
1626
1627
1628
1629
1630
1631
1632
1633
1634
1635
1636
1637
1638
1639
1640
1641
1642
1643
1644
1645
1646
1647
1648
1649
1650
1651
1652
1653
1654
1655
1656
1657
1658
1659
1660
1661
1662
1663
1664
1665
1666
1667
1668
1669
1670
1671
1672
1673
1674
1675
1676
1677
1678
1679
1680
1681
1682
1683
1684
1685
1686
1687
1688
1689
1690
1691
1692
1693
1694
1695
1696
1697
1698
1699
1700
1701
1702
1703
1704
1705
1706
1707
1708
1709
1710
1711
1712
1713
1714
1715
1716
1717
1718
1719
1720
1721
1722
1723
1724
1725
1726
1727
1728
1729
1730
1731
1732
1733
1734
1735
1736
1737
1738
1739
1740
1741
1742
1743
|
h2. Getting Started with Rails
This guide covers getting up and running with Ruby on Rails. After reading it,
you should be familiar with:
* Installing Rails, creating a new Rails application, and connecting your application to a database
* The general layout of a Rails application
* The basic principles of MVC (Model, View Controller) and RESTful design
* How to quickly generate the starting pieces of a Rails application
endprologue.
WARNING. This Guide is based on Rails 3.2. Some of the code shown here will not
work in earlier versions of Rails.
h3. Guide Assumptions
This guide is designed for beginners who want to get started with a Rails
application from scratch. It does not assume that you have any prior experience
with Rails. However, to get the most out of it, you need to have some
prerequisites installed:
* The "Ruby":http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads language version 1.8.7 or higher
TIP: Note that Ruby 1.8.7 p248 and p249 have marshaling bugs that crash Rails
3.0. Ruby Enterprise Edition have these fixed since release 1.8.7-2010.02
though. On the 1.9 front, Ruby 1.9.1 is not usable because it outright segfaults
on Rails 3.0, so if you want to use Rails 3 with 1.9.x jump on 1.9.2 or
1.9.3 for smooth sailing.
* The "RubyGems":http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=126 packaging system
** If you want to learn more about RubyGems, please read the "RubyGems User Guide":http://docs.rubygems.org/read/book/1
* A working installation of the "SQLite3 Database":http://www.sqlite.org
Rails is a web application framework running on the Ruby programming language.
If you have no prior experience with Ruby, you will find a very steep learning
curve diving straight into Rails. There are some good free resources on the
internet for learning Ruby, including:
* "Mr. Neighborly's Humble Little Ruby Book":http://www.humblelittlerubybook.com
* "Programming Ruby":http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/
* "Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby":http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/
h3. What is Rails?
Rails is a web application development framework written in the Ruby language.
It is designed to make programming web applications easier by making assumptions
about what every developer needs to get started. It allows you to write less
code while accomplishing more than many other languages and frameworks.
Experienced Rails developers also report that it makes web application
development more fun.
Rails is opinionated software. It makes the assumption that there is a "best"
way to do things, and it's designed to encourage that way - and in some cases to
discourage alternatives. If you learn "The Rails Way" you'll probably discover a
tremendous increase in productivity. If you persist in bringing old habits from
other languages to your Rails development, and trying to use patterns you
learned elsewhere, you may have a less happy experience.
The Rails philosophy includes two major guiding principles:
* DRY - "Don't Repeat Yourself" - suggests that writing the same code over and over again is a bad thing.
* Convention Over Configuration - means that Rails makes assumptions about what you want to do and how you're going to
do it, rather than requiring you to specify every little thing through endless configuration files.
h3. Creating a New Rails Project
The best way to use this guide is to follow each step as it happens, no code or
step needed to make this example application has been left out, so you can
literally follow along step by step. You can get the complete code
"here":https://github.com/lifo/docrails/tree/master/guides/code/getting_started.
By following along with this guide, you'll create a Rails project called
+blog+, a
(very) simple weblog. Before you can start building the application, you need to
make sure that you have Rails itself installed.
TIP: The examples below use # and $ to denote superuser and regular user terminal prompts respectively in a UNIX-like OS. If you are using Windows, your prompt will look something like c:\source_code>
h4. Installing Rails
To install Rails, use the +gem install+ command provided by RubyGems:
<shell>
# gem install rails
</shell>
TIP. A number of tools exist to help you quickly install Ruby and Ruby
on Rails on your system. Windows users can use "Rails
Installer":http://railsinstaller.org, while Mac OS X users can use
"Rails One Click":http://railsoneclick.com.
To verify that you have everything installed correctly, you should be able to run the following:
<shell>
$ rails --version
</shell>
If it says something like "Rails 3.2.3" you are ready to continue.
h4. Creating the Blog Application
Rails comes with a number of generators that are designed to make your development life easier. One of these is the new application generator, which will provide you with the foundation of a Rails application so that you don't have to write it yourself.
To use this generator, open a terminal, navigate to a directory where you have rights to create files, and type:
<shell>
$ rails new blog
</shell>
This will create a Rails application called Blog in a directory called blog and install the gem dependencies that are already mentioned in +Gemfile+ using +bundle install+.
TIP: You can see all of the command line options that the Rails
application builder accepts by running +rails new -h+.
After you create the blog application, switch to its folder to continue work directly in that application:
<shell>
$ cd blog
</shell>
The +rails new blog+ command we ran above created a folder in your
working directory called +blog+. The +blog+ directory has a number of
auto-generated files and folders that make up the structure of a Rails
application. Most of the work in this tutorial will happen in the +app/+ folder, but here's a basic rundown on the function of each of the files and folders that Rails created by default:
|_.File/Folder|_.Purpose|
|app/|Contains the controllers, models, views, helpers, mailers and assets for your application. You'll focus on this folder for the remainder of this guide.|
|config/|Configure your application's runtime rules, routes, database, and more. This is covered in more detail in "Configuring Rails Applications":configuring.html|
|config.ru|Rack configuration for Rack based servers used to start the application.|
|db/|Contains your current database schema, as well as the database migrations.|
|doc/|In-depth documentation for your application.|
|Gemfile<BR />Gemfile.lock|These files allow you to specify what gem dependencies are needed for your Rails application. These files are used by the Bundler gem. For more information about Bundler, see "the Bundler website":http://gembundler.com |
|lib/|Extended modules for your application.|
|log/|Application log files.|
|public/|The only folder seen to the world as-is. Contains the static files and compiled assets.|
|Rakefile|This file locates and loads tasks that can be run from the command line. The task definitions are defined throughout the components of Rails. Rather than changing Rakefile, you should add your own tasks by adding files to the lib/tasks directory of your application.|
|README.rdoc|This is a brief instruction manual for your application. You should edit this file to tell others what your application does, how to set it up, and so on.|
|script/|Contains the rails script that starts your app and can contain other scripts you use to deploy or run your application.|
|test/|Unit tests, fixtures, and other test apparatus. These are covered in "Testing Rails Applications":testing.html|
|tmp/|Temporary files (like cache, pid and session files)|
|vendor/|A place for all third-party code. In a typical Rails application, this includes Ruby Gems and the Rails source code (if you optionally install it into your project).|
h3. Hello, Rails!
To begin with, let's get some text up on screen quickly. To do this, you need to get your Rails application server running.
h4. Starting up the Web Server
You actually have a functional Rails application already. To see it, you need to start a web server on your development machine. You can do this by running:
<shell>
$ rails server
</shell>
TIP: Compiling CoffeeScript to JavaScript requires a JavaScript runtime and the absence of a runtime will give you an +execjs+ error. Usually Mac OS X and Windows come with a JavaScript runtime installed. Rails adds the +therubyracer+ gem to Gemfile in a commented line for new apps and you can uncomment if you need it. +therubyrhino+ is the recommended runtime for JRuby users and is added by default to Gemfile in apps generated under JRuby. You can investigate about all the supported runtimes at "ExecJS":https://github.com/sstephenson/execjs#readme.
This will fire up WEBrick, a webserver built into Ruby by default. To see your application in action, open a browser window and navigate to "http://localhost:3000":http://localhost:3000. You should see the Rails default information page:
!images/rails_welcome.png(Welcome Aboard screenshot)!
TIP: To stop the web server, hit Ctrl+C in the terminal window where it's running. In development mode, Rails does not generally require you to restart the server; changes you make in files will be automatically picked up by the server.
The "Welcome Aboard" page is the _smoke test_ for a new Rails application: it makes sure that you have your software configured correctly enough to serve a page. You can also click on the _About your application’s environment_ link to see a summary of your application's environment.
h4. Say "Hello", Rails
To get Rails saying "Hello", you need to create at minimum a _controller_ and a _view_.
A controller's purpose is to receive specific requests for the application. _Routing_ decides which controller receives which requests. Often, there is more than one route to each controller, and different routes can be served by different _actions_. Each action's purpose is to collect information to provide it to a view.
A view's purpose is to display this information in a human readable format. An important distinction to make is that it is the _controller_, not the view, where information is collected. The view should just display that information. By default, view templates are written in a language called ERB (Embedded Ruby) which is converted by the request cycle in Rails before being sent to the user.
To create a new controller, you will need to run the "controller" generator and tell it you want a controller called "welcome" with an action called "index", just like this:
<shell>
$ rails generate controller welcome index
</shell>
Rails will create several files for you. Most important of these are of course the controller, located at +app/controllers/welcome_controller.rb+ and the view, located at +app/views/welcome/index.html.erb+.
Open the +app/views/welcome/index.html.erb+ file in your text editor and edit it to contain a single line of code:
<html>
<h1>Hello, Rails!</h1>
</html>
h4. Setting the Application Home Page
Now that we have made the controller and view, we need to tell Rails when we want "Hello Rails!" to show up. In our case, we want it to show up when we navigate to the root URL of our site, "http://localhost:3000":http://localhost:3000. At the moment, however, the "Welcome Aboard" smoke test is occupying that spot.
To fix this, delete the +index.html+ file located inside the +public+ directory of the application.
You need to do this because Rails will serve any static file in the +public+ directory that matches a route in preference to any dynamic content you generate from the controllers. The +index.html+ file is special: it will be served if a request comes in at the root route, e.g. http://localhost:3000. If another request such as http://localhost:3000/welcome happened, a static file at <tt>public/welcome.html</tt> would be served first, but only if it existed.
Next, you have to tell Rails where your actual home page is located.
Open the file +config/routes.rb+ in your editor. This is your application's _routing file_ which holds entries in a special DSL (domain-specific language) that tells Rails how to connect incoming requests to controllers and actions. This file contains many sample routes on commented lines, and one of them actually shows you how to connect the root of your site to a specific controller and action. Find the line beginning with +root :to+ and uncomment it. It should look something like the following:
<ruby>
Blog::Application.routes.draw do
#...
# You can have the root of your site routed with "root"
# just remember to delete public/index.html.
root :to => "welcome#index"
</ruby>
The +root :to => "welcome#index"+ tells Rails to map requests to the root of the application to the welcome controller's index action. This was created earlier when you ran the controller generator (+rails generate controller welcome index+).
If you navigate to "http://localhost:3000":http://localhost:3000 in your browser, you'll see the +Hello, Rails!+ message you put into +app/views/welcome/index.html.erb+, indicating that this new route is indeed going to +WelcomeController+'s +index+ action and is rendering the view correctly.
NOTE. For more information about routing, refer to "Rails Routing from the Outside In":routing.html.
h3. Getting Up and Running
Now that you've seen how to create a controller, an action and a view, let's create something with a bit more substance.
In the Blog application, you will now create a new _resource_. A resource is the term used for a collection of similar objects, such as posts, people or animals. You can create, read, update and destroy items for a resource and these operations are referred to as _CRUD_ operations.
In the next section, you will add the ability to create new posts in your application and be able to view them. This is the "C" and the "R" from CRUD: creation and reading. The form for doing this will look like this:
!images/getting_started/new_post.png(The new post form)!
It will look a little basic for now, but that's ok. We'll look at improving the styling for it afterwards.
h4. Laying down the ground work
The first thing that you are going to need to create a new post within the application is a place to do that. A great place for that would be at +/posts/new+. If you attempt to navigate to that now -- by visiting "http://localhost:3000/posts/new":http://localhost:3000/posts/new -- Rails will give you a routing error:
!images/getting_started/routing_error_no_route_matches.png(A routing error, no route matches /posts/new)!
This is because there is nowhere inside the routes for the application -- defined inside +config/routes.rb+ -- that defines this route. By default, Rails has no routes configured at all, besides the root route you defined earlier, and so you must define your routes as you need them.
To do this, you're going to need to create a route inside +config/routes.rb+ file, on a new line between the +do+ and the +end+ for the +draw+ method:
<ruby>
get "posts/new"
</ruby>
This route is a super-simple route: it defines a new route that only responds to +GET+ requests, and that the route is at +posts/new+. But how does it know where to go without the use of the +:to+ option? Well, Rails uses a sensible default here: Rails will assume that you want this route to go to the new action inside the posts controller.
With the route defined, requests can now be made to +/posts/new+ in the application. Navigate to "http://localhost:3000/posts/new":http://localhost:3000/posts/new and you'll see another routing error:
!images/getting_started/routing_error_no_controller.png(Another routing error, uninitialized constant PostsController)!
This error is happening because this route need a controller to be defined. The route is attempting to find that controller so it can serve the request, but with the controller undefined, it just can't do that. The solution to this particular problem is simple: you need to create a controller called +PostsController+. You can do this by running this command:
<shell>
$ rails g controller posts
</shell>
If you open up the newly generated +app/controllers/posts_controller.rb+ you'll see a fairly empty controller:
<ruby>
class PostsController < ApplicationController
end
</ruby>
A controller is simply a class that is defined to inherit from +ApplicationController+. It's inside this class that you'll define methods that will become the actions for this controller. These actions will perform CRUD operations on the posts within our system.
If you refresh "http://localhost:3000/posts/new":http://localhost:3000/posts/new now, you'll get a new error:
!images/getting_started/unknown_action_new_for_posts.png(Unknown action new for PostsController!)!
This error indicates that Rails cannot find the +new+ action inside the +PostsController+ that you just generated. This is because when controllers are generated in Rails they are empty by default, unless you tell it you wanted actions during the generation process.
To manually define an action inside a controller, all you need to do is to define a new method inside the controller. Open +app/controllers/posts_controller.rb+ and inside the +PostsController+ class, define a +new+ method like this:
<ruby>
def new
end
</ruby>
With the +new+ method defined in +PostsController+, if you refresh "http://localhost:3000/posts/new":http://localhost:3000/posts/new you'll see another error:
!images/getting_started/template_is_missing_posts_new.png(Template is missing for posts/new)!
You're getting this error now because Rails expects plain actions like this one to have views associated with them to display their information. With no view available, Rails errors out.
In the above image, the bottom line has been truncated. Let's see what the full thing looks like:
<blockquote>
Missing template posts/new, application/new with {:locale=>[:en], :formats=>[:html], :handlers=>[:erb, :builder, :coffee]}. Searched in: * "/path/to/blog/app/views"
</blockquote>
That's quite a lot of text! Let's quickly go through and understand what each part of it does.
The first part identifies what template is missing. In this case, it's the +posts/new+ template. Rails will first look for this template. If not found, then it will attempt to load a template called +application/new+. It looks for one here because the +PostsController+ inherits from +ApplicationController+.
The next part of the message contains a hash. The +:locale+ key in this hash simply indicates what spoken language template should be retrieved. By default, this is the English -- or "en" -- template. The next key, +:formats+ specifies the format of template to be served in response . The default format is +:html+, and so Rails is looking for an HTML template. The final key, +:handlers+, is telling us what _template handlers_ could be used to render our template. +:erb+ is most commonly used for HTML templates, +:builder+ is used for XML templates, and +:coffee+ uses CoffeeScript to build JavaScript templates.
The final part of this message tells us where Rails has looked for the templates. Templates within a basic Rails application like this are kept in a single location, but in more complex applications it could be many different paths.
The simplest template that would work in this case would be one located at +app/views/posts/new.html.erb+. The extension of this file name is key: the first extension is the _format_ of the template, and the second extension is the _handler_ that will be used. Rails is attempting to find a template called +posts/new+ within +app/views+ for the application. The format for this template can only be +html+ and the handler must be one of +erb+, +builder+ or +coffee+. Because you want to create a new HTML form, you will be using the +ERB+ language. Therefore the file should be called +posts/new.html.erb+ and needs to be located inside the +app/views+ directory of the application.
Go ahead now and create a new file at +app/views/posts/new.html.erb+ and write this content in it:
<erb>
<h1>New Post</h1>
</erb>
When you refresh "http://localhost:3000/posts/new":http://localhost:3000/posts/new you'll now see that the page has a title. The route, controller, action and view are now working harmoniously! It's time to create the form for a new post.
h4. The first form
To create a form within this template, you will use a <em>form
builder</em>. The primary form builder for Rails is provided by a helper
method called +form_for+. To use this method, add this code into +app/views/posts/new.html.erb+:
<erb>
<%= form_for :post do |f| %>
<p>
<%= f.label :title %><br>
<%= f.text_field :title %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.label :text %><br>
<%= f.text_area :text %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.submit %>
</p>
<% end %>
</erb>
If you refresh the page now, you'll see the exact same form as in the example. Building forms in Rails is really just that easy!
When you call +form_for+, you pass it an identifying object for this
form. In this case, it's the symbol +:post+. This tells the +form_for+
helper what this form is for. Inside the block for this method, the
+FormBuilder+ object -- represented by +f+ -- is used to build two labels and two text fields, one each for the title and text of a post. Finally, a call to +submit+ on the +f+ object will create a submit button for the form.
There's one problem with this form though. If you inspect the HTML that is generated, by viewing the source of the page, you will see that the +action+ attribute for the form is pointing at +/posts/new+. This is a problem because this route goes to the very page that you're on right at the moment, and that route should only be used to display the form for a new post.
The form needs to use a different URL in order to go somewhere else.
This can be done quite simply with the +:url+ option of +form_for+.
Typically in Rails, the action that is used for new form submissions
like this is called "create", and so the form should be pointed to that action.
Edit the +form_for+ line inside +app/views/posts/new.html.erb+ to look like this:
<erb>
<%= form_for :post, :url => { :action => :create } do |f| %>
</erb>
In this example, a +Hash+ object is passed to the +:url+ option. What Rails will do with this is that it will point the form to the +create+ action of the current controller, the +PostsController+, and will send a +POST+ request to that route. For this to work, you will need to add a route to +config/routes.rb+, right underneath the one for "posts/new":
<ruby>
post "posts/create"
</ruby>
By using the +post+ method rather than the +get+ method, Rails will define a route that will only respond to POST methods. The POST method is the typical method used by forms all over the web.
With the form and its associated route defined, you will be able to fill in the form and then click the submit button to begin the process of creating a new post, so go ahead and do that. When you submit the form, you should see a familiar error:
!images/getting_started/unknown_action_create_for_posts.png(Unknown action create for PostsController)!
You now need to create the +create+ action within the +PostsController+ for this to work.
h4. Creating posts
To make the "Unknown action" go away, you can define a +create+ action within the +PostsController+ class in +app/controllers/posts_controller.rb+, underneath the +new+ action:
<ruby>
class PostsController < ApplicationController
def new
end
def create
end
end
</ruby>
If you re-submit the form now, you'll see another familiar error: a template is missing. That's ok, we can ignore that for now. What the +create+ action should be doing is saving our new post to a database.
When a form is submitted, the fields of the form are sent to Rails as _parameters_. These parameters can then be referenced inside the controller actions, typically to perform a particular task. To see what these parameters look like, change the +create+ action to this:
<ruby>
def create
render :text => params[:post].inspect
end
</ruby>
The +render+ method here is taking a very simple hash with a key of +text+ and value of +params[:post].inspect+. The +params+ method is the object which represents the parameters (or fields) coming in from the form. The +params+ method returns a +HashWithIndifferentAccess+ object, which allows you to access the keys of the hash using either strings or symbols. In this situation, the only parameters that matter are the ones from the form.
If you re-submit the form one more time you'll now no longer get the missing template error. Instead, you'll see something that looks like the following:
<ruby>
{"title"=>"First post!", "text"=>"This is my first post."}
</ruby>
This action is now displaying the parameters for the post that are coming in from the form. However, this isn't really all that helpful. Yes, you can see the parameters but nothing in particular is being done with them.
h4. Creating the Post model
Models in Rails use a singular name, and their corresponding database tables use
a plural name. Rails provides a generator for creating models, which
most Rails developers tend to use when creating new models.
To create the new model, run this command in your terminal:
<shell>
$ rails generate model Post title:string text:text
</shell>
With that command we told Rails that we want a +Post+ model, together
with a _title_ attribute of type string, and a _text_ attribute
of type text. Those attributes are automatically added to the +posts+
table in the database and mapped to the +Post+ model.
Rails responded by creating a bunch of files. For
now, we're only interested in +app/models/post.rb+ and
+db/migrate/20120419084633_create_posts.rb+ (your name could be a bit
different). The latter is responsible
for creating the database structure, which is what we'll look at next.
TIP: Active Record is smart enough to automatically map column names to
model attributes, which means you don't have to declare attributes
inside Rails models, as that will be done automatically by Active
Record.
h4. Running a Migration
As we've just seen, +rails generate model+ created a _database
migration_ file inside the +db/migrate+ directory.
Migrations are Ruby classes that are designed to make it simple to
create and modify database tables. Rails uses rake commands to run migrations,
and it's possible to undo a migration after it's been applied to your database.
Migration filenames include a timestamp to ensure that they're processed in the
order that they were created.
If you look in the +db/migrate/20120419084633_create_posts.rb+ file (remember,
yours will have a slightly different name), here's what you'll find:
<ruby>
class CreatePosts < ActiveRecord::Migration
def change
create_table :posts do |t|
t.string :title
t.text :text
t.timestamps
end
end
end
</ruby>
The above migration creates a method named +change+ which will be called when you
run this migration. The action defined in this method is also reversible, which
means Rails knows how to reverse the change made by this migration, in case you
want to reverse it later. When you run this migration it will create a
+posts+ table with one string column and a text column. It also creates two
timestamp fields to allow Rails to track post creation and update times. More
information about Rails migrations can be found in the "Rails Database
Migrations":migrations.html guide.
At this point, you can use a rake command to run the migration:
<shell>
$ rake db:migrate
</shell>
Rails will execute this migration command and tell you it created the Posts
table.
<shell>
== CreatePosts: migrating ====================================================
-- create_table(:posts)
-> 0.0019s
== CreatePosts: migrated (0.0020s) ===========================================
</shell>
NOTE. Because you're working in the development environment by default, this
command will apply to the database defined in the +development+ section of your
+config/database.yml+ file. If you would like to execute migrations in another
environment, for instance in production, you must explicitly pass it when
invoking the command: +rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV=production+.
h4. Saving data in the controller
Back in +posts_controller+, we need to change the +create+ action
to use the new +Post+ model to save the data in the database. Open that file
and change the +create+ action to look like this:
<ruby>
def create
@post = Post.new(params[:post])
@post.save
redirect_to :action => :show, :id => @post.id
end
</ruby>
Here's what's going on: every Rails model can be initialized with its
respective attributes, which are automatically mapped to the respective
database columns. In the first line we do just that (remember that
+params[:post]+ contains the attributes we're interested in). Then,
+@post.save+ is responsible for saving the model in the database.
Finally, we redirect the user to the +show+ action,
which we'll define later.
TIP: As we'll see later, +@post.save+ returns a boolean indicating
wherever the model was saved or not.
h4. Showing Posts
If you submit the form again now, Rails will complain about not finding
the +show+ action. That's not very useful though, so let's add the
+show+ action before proceeding. Open +config/routes.rb+ and add the following route:
<ruby>
get "posts/:id" => "posts#show"
</ruby>
The special syntax +:id+ tells rails that this route expects an +:id+
parameter, which in our case will be the id of the post. Note that this
time we had to specify the actual mapping, +posts#show+ because
otherwise Rails would not know which action to render.
As we did before, we need to add the +show+ action in the
+posts_controller+ and its respective view.
<ruby>
def show
@post = Post.find(params[:id])
end
</ruby>
A couple of things to note. We use +Post.find+ to find the post we're
interested in. We also use an instance variable (prefixed by +@+) to
hold a reference to the post object. We do this because Rails will pass all instance
variables to the view.
Now, create a new file +app/view/posts/show.html.erb+ with the following
content:
<erb>
<p>
<strong>Title:</strong>
<%= @post.title %>
</p>
<p>
<strong>Text:</strong>
<%= @post.text %>
</p>
</erb>
Finally, if you now go to
"http://localhost:3000/posts/new":http://localhost:3000/posts/new you'll
be able to create a post. Try it!
!images/getting_started/show_action_for_posts.png(Show action for posts)!
h4. Listing all posts
We still need a way to list all our posts, so let's do that. As usual,
we'll need a route placed into +config/routes.rb+:
<ruby>
get "posts" => "posts#index"
</ruby>
And an action for that route inside the +PostsController+ in the +app/controllers/posts_controller.rb+ file:
<ruby>
def index
@posts = Post.all
end
</ruby>
And then finally a view for this action, located at +app/views/posts/index.html.erb+:
<erb>
<h1>Listing posts</h1>
<table>
<tr>
<th>Title</th>
<th>Text</th>
</tr>
<% @posts.each do |post| %>
<tr>
<td><%= post.title %></td>
<td><%= post.text %></td>
</tr>
<% end %>
</table>
</erb>
Now if you go to +http://localhost:3000/posts+ you will see a list of all the posts that you have created.
h4. Adding links
You can now create, show, and list posts. Now let's add some links to
navigate through pages.
Open +app/views/welcome/index.html.erb+ and modify it as follows:
<ruby>
<h1>Hello, Rails!</h1>
<%= link_to "My Blog", :controller => "posts" %>
</ruby>
The +link_to+ method is one of Rails' built-in view helpers. It creates a
hyperlink based on text to display and where to go - in this case, to the path
for posts.
Let's add links to the other views as well, starting with adding this "New Post" link to +app/views/posts/index.html.erb+, placing it above the +<table>+ tag:
<erb>
<%= link_to 'New post', :action => :new %>
</erb>
This link will allow you to bring up the form that lets you create a new post. You should also add a link to this template -- +app/views/posts/new.html.erb+ -- to go back to the +index+ action. Do this by adding this underneath the form in this template:
<erb>
<%= form_for :post do |f| %>
...
<% end %>
<%= link_to 'Back', :action => :index %>
</erb>
Finally, add another link to the +app/views/posts/show.html.erb+ template to go back to the +index+ action as well, so that people who are viewing a single post can go back and view the whole list again:
<erb>
<p>
<strong>Title:</strong>
<%= @post.title %>
</p>
<p>
<strong>Text:</strong>
<%= @post.text %>
</p>
<%= link_to 'Back', :action => :index %>
</erb>
TIP: If you want to link to an action in the same controller, you don't
need to specify the +:controller+ option, as Rails will use the current
controller by default.
TIP: In development mode (which is what you're working in by default), Rails
reloads your application with every browser request, so there's no need to stop
and restart the web server when a change is made.
h4. Allowing the update of fields
The model file, +app/models/post.rb+ is about as simple as it can get:
<ruby>
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
end
</ruby>
There isn't much to this file - but note that the +Post+ class inherits from
+ActiveRecord::Base+. Active Record supplies a great deal of functionality to
your Rails models for free, including basic database CRUD (Create, Read, Update,
Destroy) operations, data validation, as well as sophisticated search support
and the ability to relate multiple models to one another.
Rails includes methods to help you secure some of your model fields.
Open the +app/models/post.rb+ file and edit it:
<ruby>
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :text, :title
end
</ruby>
This change will ensure that all changes made through HTML forms can edit the content of the text and title fields.
It will not be possible to define any other field value through forms. You can still define them by calling the `field=` method of course.
Accessible attributes and the mass assignment problem is covered in details in the "Security guide":security.html#mass-assignment
h4. Adding Some Validation
Rails includes methods to help you validate the data that you send to models.
Open the +app/models/post.rb+ file and edit it:
<ruby>
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :text, :title
validates :title, :presence => true,
:length => { :minimum => 5 }
end
</ruby>
These changes will ensure that all posts have a title that is at least five characters long.
Rails can validate a variety of conditions in a model, including the presence or uniqueness of columns, their
format, and the existence of associated objects. Validations are covered in detail
in "Active Record Validations and
Callbacks":active_record_validations_callbacks.html#validations-overview
With the validation now in place, when you call +@post.save+ on an invalid
post, it will return +false+. If you open +app/controllers/posts_controller.rb+
again, you'll notice that we don't check the result of calling +@post.save+
inside the +create+ action. If +@post.save+ fails in this situation, we need to
show the form back to the user. To do this, change the +new+ and +create+
actions inside +app/controllers/posts_controller.rb+ to these:
<ruby>
def new
@post = Post.new
end
def create
@post = Post.new(params[:post])
if @post.save
redirect_to :action => :show, :id => @post.id
else
render 'new'
end
end
</ruby>
The +new+ action is now creating a new instance variable called +@post+, and
you'll see why that is in just a few moments.
Notice that inside the +create+ action we use +render+ instead of +redirect_to+ when +save+
returns +false+. The +render+ method is used so that the +@post+ object is passed back to the +new+ template when it is rendered. This rendering is done within the same request as the form submission, whereas the +redirect_to+ will tell the browser to issue another request.
If you reload
"http://localhost:3000/posts/new":http://localhost:3000/posts/new and
try to save a post without a title, Rails will send you back to the
form, but that's not very useful. You need to tell the user that
something went wrong. To do that, you'll modify
+app/views/posts/new.html.erb+ to check for error messages:
<erb>
<%= form_for :post, :url => { :action => :create } do |f| %>
<% if @post.errors.any? %>
<div id="errorExplanation">
<h2><%= pluralize(@post.errors.count, "error") %> prohibited
this post from being saved:</h2>
<ul>
<% @post.errors.full_messages.each do |msg| %>
<li><%= msg %></li>
<% end %>
</ul>
</div>
<% end %>
<p>
<%= f.label :title %><br>
<%= f.text_field :title %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.label :text %><br>
<%= f.text_area :text %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.submit %>
</p>
<% end %>
<%= link_to 'Back', :action => :index %>
</erb>
A few things are going on. We check if there are any errors with
+@post.errors.any?+, and in that case we show a list of all
errors with +@post.errors.full_messages+.
+pluralize+ is a rails helper that takes a number and a string as its
arguments. If the number is greater than one, the string will be automatically pluralized.
The reason why we added +@post = Post.new+ in +posts_controller+ is that
otherwise +@post+ would be +nil+ in our view, and calling
+@post.errors.any?+ would throw an error.
TIP: Rails automatically wraps fields that contain an error with a div
with class +field_with_errors+. You can define a css rule to make them
standout.
Now you'll get a nice error message when saving a post without title when you
attempt to do just that on the "new post form(http://localhost:3000/posts/new)":http://localhost:3000/posts/new.
!images/getting_started/form_with_errors.png(Form With Errors)!
h4. Updating Posts
We've covered the "CR" part of CRUD. Now let's focus on the "U" part,
updating posts.
The first step we'll take is adding a +edit+ action to
+posts_controller+.
Start by adding a route to +config/routes.rb+:
<ruby>
get "posts/:id/edit" => "posts#edit"
</ruby>
And then add the controller action:
<ruby>
def edit
@post = Post.find(params[:id])
end
</ruby>
The view will contain a form similar to the one we used when creating
new posts. Create a file called +app/views/posts/edit.html.erb+ and make
it look as follows:
<erb>
<h1>Editing post</h1>
<%= form_for :post, :url => { :action => :update, :id => @post.id },
:method => :put do |f| %>
<% if @post.errors.any? %>
<div id="errorExplanation">
<h2><%= pluralize(@post.errors.count, "error") %> prohibited
this post from being saved:</h2>
<ul>
<% @post.errors.full_messages.each do |msg| %>
<li><%= msg %></li>
<% end %>
</ul>
</div>
<% end %>
<p>
<%= f.label :title %><br>
<%= f.text_field :title %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.label :text %><br>
<%= f.text_area :text %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.submit %>
</p>
<% end %>
<%= link_to 'Back', :action => :index %>
</erb>
This time we point the form to the +update+ action, which is not defined yet
but will be very soon.
The +:method => :put+ option tells Rails that we want this form to be
submitted via the +PUT+, HTTP method which is the HTTP method you're expected to use to
*update* resources according to the REST protocol.
TIP: By default forms built with the +form_for_ helper are sent via +POST+.
Next, we need to add the +update+ action. The file
+config/routes.rb+ will need just one more line:
<ruby>
put "posts/:id" => "posts#update"
</ruby>
And then create the +update+ action in +app/controllers/posts_controller.rb+:
<ruby>
def update
@post = Post.find(params[:id])
if @post.update_attributes(params[:post])
redirect_to :action => :show, :id => @post.id
else
render 'edit'
end
end
</ruby>
The new method, +update_attributes+, is used when you want to update a record
that already exists, and it accepts an hash containing the attributes
that you want to update. As before, if there was an error updating the
post we want to show the form back to the user.
TIP: you don't need to pass all attributes to +update_attributes+. For
example, if you'd call +@post.update_attributes(:title => 'A new title')+
Rails would only update the +title+ attribute, leaving all other
attributes untouched.
Finally, we want to show a link to the +edit+ action in the list of all the
posts, so let's add that now to +app/views/posts/index.html.erb+ to make it
appear next to the "Show" link:
<erb>
<table>
<tr>
<th>Title</th>
<th>Text</th>
<th></th>
<th></th>
</tr>
<% @posts.each do |post| %>
<tr>
<td><%= post.title %></td>
<td><%= post.text %></td>
<td><%= link_to 'Show', :action => :show, :id => post.id %></td>
<td><%= link_to 'Edit', :action => :edit, :id => post.id %></td>
</tr>
<% end %>
</table>
</erb>
And we'll also add one to the +app/views/posts/show.html.erb+ template as well,
so that there's also an "Edit" link on a post's page. Add this at the bottom of
the template:
<erb>
...
<%= link_to 'Back', :action => :index %>
| <%= link_to 'Edit', :action => :edit, :id => @post.id %>
</erb>
And here's how our app looks so far:
!images/getting_started/index_action_with_edit_link.png(Index action
with edit link)!
h4. Using partials to clean up duplication in views
+partials+ are what Rails uses to remove duplication in views. Here's a
simple example:
<erb>
# app/views/user/show.html.erb
<h1><%= @user.name %></h1>
<%= render 'user_details' %>
# app/views/user/_user_details.html.erb
<%= @user.location %>
<%= @user.about_me %>
</erb>
The +users/show+ template will automatically include the content of the
+users/_user_details+ template. Note that partials are prefixed by an underscore,
as to not be confused with regular views. However, you don't include the
underscore when including them with the +helper+ method.
TIP: You can read more about partials in the "Layouts and Rendering in
Rails":layouts_and_rendering.html guide.
Our +edit+ action looks very similar to the +new+ action, in fact they
both share the same code for displaying the form. Lets clean them up by
using a partial.
Create a new file +app/views/posts/_form.html.erb+ with the following
content:
<erb>
<%= form_for @post do |f| %>
<% if @post.errors.any? %>
<div id="errorExplanation">
<h2><%= pluralize(@post.errors.count, "error") %> prohibited
this post from being saved:</h2>
<ul>
<% @post.errors.full_messages.each do |msg| %>
<li><%= msg %></li>
<% end %>
</ul>
</div>
<% end %>
<p>
<%= f.label :title %><br>
<%= f.text_field :title %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.label :text %><br>
<%= f.text_area :text %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.submit %>
</p>
<% end %>
</erb>
Everything except for the +form_for+ declaration remained the same.
How +form_for+ can figure out the right +action+ and +method+ attributes
when building the form will be explained in just a moment. For now, let's update the
+app/views/posts/new.html.erb+ view to use this new partial, rewriting it
completely:
<erb>
<h1>New post</h1>
<%= render 'form' %>
<%= link_to 'Back', :action => :index %>
</erb>
Then do the same for the +app/views/posts/edit.html.erb+ view:
<erb>
<h1>Edit post</h1>
<%= render 'form' %>
<%= link_to 'Back', :action => :index %>
</erb>
Point your browser to "http://localhost:3000/posts/new":http://localhost:3000/posts/new and
try creating a new post. Everything still works. Now try editing the
post and you'll receive the following error:
!images/getting_started/undefined_method_post_path.png(Undefined method
post_path)!
To understand this error, you need to understand how +form_for+ works.
When you pass an object to +form_for+ and you don't specify a +:url+
option, Rails will try to guess the +action+ and +method+ options by
checking if the passed object is a new record or not. Rails follows the
REST convention, so to create a new +Post+ object it will look for a
route named +posts_path+, and to update a +Post+ object it will look for
a route named +post_path+ and pass the current object. Similarly, rails
knows that it should create new objects via POST and update them via
PUT.
If you run +rake routes+ from the console you'll see that we already
have a +posts_path+ route, which was created automatically by Rails when we
defined the route for the index action.
However, we don't have a +post_path+ yet, which is the reason why we
received an error before.
<shell>
# rake routes
posts GET /posts(.:format) posts#index
posts_new GET /posts/new(.:format) posts#new
posts_create POST /posts/create(.:format) posts#create
GET /posts/:id(.:format) posts#show
GET /posts/:id/edit(.:format) posts#edit
PUT /posts/:id(.:format) posts#update
root / welcome#index
</shell>
To fix this, open +config/routes.rb+ and modify the +get "posts/:id"+
line like this:
<ruby>
get "posts/:id" => "posts#show", :as => :post
</ruby>
The +:as+ option tells the +get+ method that we want to make routing helpers
called +post_url+ and +post_path+ available to our application. These are
precisely the methods that the +form_for+ needs when editing a post, and so now
you'll be able to update posts again.
NOTE: The +:as+ option is available on the +post+, +put+, +delete+ and +match+
routing methods also.
h4. Deleting Posts
We're now ready to cover the "D" part of CRUD, deleting posts from the
database. Following the REST convention, we're going to add a route for
deleting posts to +config/routes.rb+:
<ruby>
delete "posts/:id" => "posts#destroy"
</ruby>
The +delete+ routing method should be used for routes that destroy
resources. If this was left as a typical +get+ route, it could be possible for
people to craft malicious URLs like this:
<html>
<a href='http://yoursite.com/posts/1/destroy'>look at this cat!</a>
</html>
We use the +delete+ method for destroying resources, and this route is mapped to
the +destroy+ action inside +app/controllers/posts_controller.rb+, which doesn't exist yet, but is
provided below:
<ruby>
def destroy
@post = Post.find(params[:id])
@post.destroy
redirect_to :action => :index
end
</ruby>
You can call +destroy+ on Active Record objects when you want to delete
them from the database. Note that we don't need to add a view for this
action since we're redirecting to the +index+ action.
Finally, add a 'destroy' link to your +index+ action template
(+app/views/posts/index.html.erb) to wrap everything
together.
<erb>
<h1>Listing Posts</h1>
<table>
<tr>
<th>Title</th>
<th>Text</th>
<th></th>
<th></th>
<th></th>
</tr>
<% @posts.each do |post| %>
<tr>
<td><%= post.title %></td>
<td><%= post.text %></td>
<td><%= link_to 'Show', :action => :show, :id => post.id %></td>
<td><%= link_to 'Edit', :action => :edit, :id => post.id %></td>
<td><%= link_to 'Destroy', { :action => :destroy, :id => post.id }, :method => :delete, :confirm => 'Are you sure?' %></td>
</tr>
<% end %>
</table>
</erb>
Here we're using +link_to+ in a different way. We wrap the
+:action+ and +:id+ attributes in a hash so that we can pass those two keys in
first as one argument, and then the final two keys as another argument. The +:method+ and +:confirm+
options are used as HTML5 attributes so that when the link is clicked,
Rails will first show a confirm dialog to the user, and then submit the
link with method +delete+. This is done via the JavaScript file +jquery_ujs+
which is automatically included into your application's layout
(+app/views/layouts/application.html.erb+) when you generated the application.
Without this file, the confirmation dialog box wouldn't appear.
!images/getting_started/confirm_dialog.png(Confirm Dialog)!
Congratulations, you can now create, show, list, update and destroy
posts. In the next section will see how Rails can aid us when creating
REST applications, and how we can refactor our Blog app to take
advantage of it.
h4. Going Deeper into REST
We've now covered all the CRUD actions of a REST app. We did so by
declaring separate routes with the appropriate verbs into
+config/routes.rb+. Here's how that file looks so far:
<ruby>
get "posts" => "posts#index"
get "posts/new"
post "posts/create"
get "posts/:id" => "posts#show", :as => :post
get "posts/:id/edit" => "posts#edit"
put "posts/:id" => "posts#update"
delete "posts/:id" => "posts#destroy"
</ruby>
That's a lot to type for covering a single *resource*. Fortunately,
Rails provides a +resources+ method which can be used to declare a
standard REST resource. Here's how +config/routes/rb+ looks after the
cleanup:
<ruby>
Blog::Application.routes.draw do
resources :posts
root :to => "welcome#index"
end
</ruby>
If you run +rake routes+, you'll see that all the routes that we
declared before are still available:
<shell>
# rake routes
posts GET /posts(.:format) posts#index
POST /posts(.:format) posts#create
new_post GET /posts/new(.:format) posts#new
edit_post GET /posts/:id/edit(.:format) posts#edit
post GET /posts/:id(.:format) posts#show
PUT /posts/:id(.:format) posts#update
DELETE /posts/:id(.:format) posts#destroy
root / welcome#index
</shell>
Also, if you go through the motions of creating, updating and deleting
posts the app still works as before.
TIP: In general, Rails encourages the use of resources objects in place
of declaring routes manually. It was only done in this guide as a learning
exercise. For more information about routing, see
"Rails Routing from the Outside In":routing.html.
h3. Adding a Second Model
It's time to add a second model to the application. The second model will handle comments on
posts.
h4. Generating a Model
We're going to see the same generator that we used before when creating
the +Post+ model. This time we'll create a +Comment+ model to hold
reference of post comments. Run this command in your terminal:
<shell>
$ rails generate model Comment commenter:string body:text post:references
</shell>
This command will generate four files:
|_.File |_.Purpose|
|db/migrate/20100207235629_create_comments.rb | Migration to create the comments table in your database (your name will include a different timestamp) |
| app/models/comment.rb | The Comment model |
| test/unit/comment_test.rb | Unit testing harness for the comments model |
| test/fixtures/comments.yml | Sample comments for use in testing |
First, take a look at +comment.rb+:
<ruby>
class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :post
end
</ruby>
This is very similar to the +post.rb+ model that you saw earlier. The difference
is the line +belongs_to :post+, which sets up an Active Record _association_.
You'll learn a little about associations in the next section of this guide.
In addition to the model, Rails has also made a migration to create the
corresponding database table:
<ruby>
class CreateComments < ActiveRecord::Migration
def change
create_table :comments do |t|
t.string :commenter
t.text :body
t.references :post
t.timestamps
end
add_index :comments, :post_id
end
end
</ruby>
The +t.references+ line sets up a foreign key column for the association between
the two models. And the +add_index+ line sets up an index for this association
column. Go ahead and run the migration:
<shell>
$ rake db:migrate
</shell>
Rails is smart enough to only execute the migrations that have not already been
run against the current database, so in this case you will just see:
<shell>
== CreateComments: migrating =================================================
-- create_table(:comments)
-> 0.0008s
-- add_index(:comments, :post_id)
-> 0.0003s
== CreateComments: migrated (0.0012s) ========================================
</shell>
h4. Associating Models
Active Record associations let you easily declare the relationship between two
models. In the case of comments and posts, you could write out the relationships
this way:
* Each comment belongs to one post.
* One post can have many comments.
In fact, this is very close to the syntax that Rails uses to declare this
association. You've already seen the line of code inside the Comment model that
makes each comment belong to a Post:
<ruby>
class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :post
end
</ruby>
You'll need to edit the +post.rb+ file to add the other side of the association:
<ruby>
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
validates :title, :presence => true,
:length => { :minimum => 5 }
has_many :comments
end
</ruby>
These two declarations enable a good bit of automatic behavior. For example, if
you have an instance variable +@post+ containing a post, you can retrieve all
the comments belonging to that post as an array using +@post.comments+.
TIP: For more information on Active Record associations, see the "Active Record
Associations":association_basics.html guide.
h4. Adding a Route for Comments
As with the +welcome+ controller, we will need to add a route so that Rails knows
where we would like to navigate to see +comments+. Open up the
+config/routes.rb+ file again, and edit it as follows:
<ruby>
resources :posts do
resources :comments
end
</ruby>
This creates +comments+ as a _nested resource_ within +posts+. This is another
part of capturing the hierarchical relationship that exists between posts and
comments.
TIP: For more information on routing, see the "Rails Routing from the Outside
In":routing.html guide.
h4. Generating a Controller
With the model in hand, you can turn your attention to creating a matching
controller. Again, we'll use the same generator we used before:
<shell>
$ rails generate controller Comments
</shell>
This creates six files and one empty directory:
|_.File/Directory |_.Purpose |
| app/controllers/comments_controller.rb | The Comments controller |
| app/views/comments/ | Views of the controller are stored here |
| test/functional/comments_controller_test.rb | The functional tests for the controller |
| app/helpers/comments_helper.rb | A view helper file |
| test/unit/helpers/comments_helper_test.rb | The unit tests for the helper |
| app/assets/javascripts/comment.js.coffee | CoffeeScript for the controller |
| app/assets/stylesheets/comment.css.scss | Cascading style sheet for the controller |
Like with any blog, our readers will create their comments directly after
reading the post, and once they have added their comment, will be sent back to
the post show page to see their comment now listed. Due to this, our
+CommentsController+ is there to provide a method to create comments and delete
spam comments when they arrive.
So first, we'll wire up the Post show template
(+/app/views/posts/show.html.erb+) to let us make a new comment:
<erb>
<p>
<strong>Title:</strong>
<%= @post.title %>
</p>
<p>
<strong>Text:</strong>
<%= @post.text %>
</p>
<h2>Add a comment:</h2>
<%= form_for([@post, @post.comments.build]) do |f| %>
<p>
<%= f.label :commenter %><br />
<%= f.text_field :commenter %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.label :body %><br />
<%= f.text_area :body %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.submit %>
</p>
<% end %>
<%= link_to 'Edit Post', edit_post_path(@post) %> |
<%= link_to 'Back to Posts', posts_path %>
</erb>
This adds a form on the +Post+ show page that creates a new comment by
calling the +CommentsController+ +create+ action. The +form_for+ call here uses
an array, which will build a nested route, such as +/posts/1/comments+.
Let's wire up the +create+:
<ruby>
class CommentsController < ApplicationController
def create
@post = Post.find(params[:post_id])
@comment = @post.comments.create(params[:comment])
redirect_to post_path(@post)
end
end
</ruby>
You'll see a bit more complexity here than you did in the controller for posts.
That's a side-effect of the nesting that you've set up. Each request for a
comment has to keep track of the post to which the comment is attached, thus the
initial call to the +find+ method of the +Post+ model to get the post in question.
In addition, the code takes advantage of some of the methods available for an
association. We use the +create+ method on +@post.comments+ to create and save
the comment. This will automatically link the comment so that it belongs to that
particular post.
Once we have made the new comment, we send the user back to the original post
using the +post_path(@post)+ helper. As we have already seen, this calls the
+show+ action of the +PostsController+ which in turn renders the +show.html.erb+
template. This is where we want the comment to show, so let's add that to the
+app/views/posts/show.html.erb+.
<erb>
<p>
<strong>Title:</strong>
<%= @post.title %>
</p>
<p>
<strong>Text:</strong>
<%= @post.text %>
</p>
<h2>Comments</h2>
<% @post.comments.each do |comment| %>
<p>
<strong>Commenter:</strong>
<%= comment.commenter %>
</p>
<p>
<strong>Comment:</strong>
<%= comment.body %>
</p>
<% end %>
<h2>Add a comment:</h2>
<%= form_for([@post, @post.comments.build]) do |f| %>
<p>
<%= f.label :commenter %><br />
<%= f.text_field :commenter %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.label :body %><br />
<%= f.text_area :body %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.submit %>
</p>
<% end %>
<%= link_to 'Edit Post', edit_post_path(@post) %> |
<%= link_to 'Back to Posts', posts_path %>
</erb>
Now you can add posts and comments to your blog and have them show up in the
right places.
!images/getting_started/post_with_comments.png(Post with Comments)!
h3. Refactoring
Now that we have posts and comments working, take a look at the
+app/views/posts/show.html.erb+ template. It is getting long and awkward. We can
use partials to clean it up.
h4. Rendering Partial Collections
First, we will make a comment partial to extract showing all the comments for the
post. Create the file +app/views/comments/_comment.html.erb+ and put the
following into it:
<erb>
<p>
<strong>Commenter:</strong>
<%= comment.commenter %>
</p>
<p>
<strong>Comment:</strong>
<%= comment.body %>
</p>
</erb>
Then you can change +app/views/posts/show.html.erb+ to look like the
following:
<erb>
<p>
<strong>Title:</strong>
<%= @post.title %>
</p>
<p>
<strong>Text:</strong>
<%= @post.text %>
</p>
<h2>Comments</h2>
<%= render @post.comments %>
<h2>Add a comment:</h2>
<%= form_for([@post, @post.comments.build]) do |f| %>
<p>
<%= f.label :commenter %><br />
<%= f.text_field :commenter %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.label :body %><br />
<%= f.text_area :body %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.submit %>
</p>
<% end %>
<%= link_to 'Edit Post', edit_post_path(@post) %> |
<%= link_to 'Back to Posts', posts_path %>
</erb>
This will now render the partial in +app/views/comments/_comment.html.erb+ once
for each comment that is in the +@post.comments+ collection. As the +render+
method iterates over the <tt>@post.comments</tt> collection, it assigns each
comment to a local variable named the same as the partial, in this case
+comment+ which is then available in the partial for us to show.
h4. Rendering a Partial Form
Let us also move that new comment section out to its own partial. Again, you
create a file +app/views/comments/_form.html.erb+ containing:
<erb>
<%= form_for([@post, @post.comments.build]) do |f| %>
<p>
<%= f.label :commenter %><br />
<%= f.text_field :commenter %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.label :body %><br />
<%= f.text_area :body %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.submit %>
</p>
<% end %>
</erb>
Then you make the +app/views/posts/show.html.erb+ look like the following:
<erb>
<p>
<strong>Title:</strong>
<%= @post.title %>
</p>
<p>
<strong>Text:</strong>
<%= @post.text %>
</p>
<h2>Add a comment:</h2>
<%= render "comments/form" %>
<%= link_to 'Edit Post', edit_post_path(@post) %> |
<%= link_to 'Back to Posts', posts_path %>
</erb>
The second render just defines the partial template we want to render,
<tt>comments/form</tt>. Rails is smart enough to spot the forward slash in that
string and realize that you want to render the <tt>_form.html.erb</tt> file in
the <tt>app/views/comments</tt> directory.
The +@post+ object is available to any partials rendered in the view because we
defined it as an instance variable.
h3. Deleting Comments
Another important feature of a blog is being able to delete spam comments. To do
this, we need to implement a link of some sort in the view and a +DELETE+ action
in the +CommentsController+.
So first, let's add the delete link in the
+app/views/comments/_comment.html.erb+ partial:
<erb>
<p>
<strong>Commenter:</strong>
<%= comment.commenter %>
</p>
<p>
<strong>Comment:</strong>
<%= comment.body %>
</p>
<p>
<%= link_to 'Destroy Comment', [comment.post, comment],
:confirm => 'Are you sure?',
:method => :delete %>
</p>
</erb>
Clicking this new "Destroy Comment" link will fire off a <tt>DELETE
/posts/:id/comments/:id</tt> to our +CommentsController+, which can then use
this to find the comment we want to delete, so let's add a destroy action to our
controller:
<ruby>
class CommentsController < ApplicationController
def create
@post = Post.find(params[:post_id])
@comment = @post.comments.create(params[:comment])
redirect_to post_path(@post)
end
def destroy
@post = Post.find(params[:post_id])
@comment = @post.comments.find(params[:id])
@comment.destroy
redirect_to post_path(@post)
end
end
</ruby>
The +destroy+ action will find the post we are looking at, locate the comment
within the <tt>@post.comments</tt> collection, and then remove it from the
database and send us back to the show action for the post.
h4. Deleting Associated Objects
If you delete a post then its associated comments will also need to be deleted.
Otherwise they would simply occupy space in the database. Rails allows you to
use the +dependent+ option of an association to achieve this. Modify the Post
model, +app/models/post.rb+, as follows:
<ruby>
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
validates :title, :presence => true,
:length => { :minimum => 5 }
has_many :comments, :dependent => :destroy
end
</ruby>
h3. Security
If you were to publish your blog online, anybody would be able to add, edit and
delete posts or delete comments.
Rails provides a very simple HTTP authentication system that will work nicely in
this situation.
In the +PostsController+ we need to have a way to block access to the various
actions if the person is not authenticated, here we can use the Rails
<tt>http_basic_authenticate_with</tt> method, allowing access to the requested
action if that method allows it.
To use the authentication system, we specify it at the top of our
+PostsController+, in this case, we want the user to be authenticated on every
action, except for +index+ and +show+, so we write that:
<ruby>
class PostsController < ApplicationController
http_basic_authenticate_with :name => "dhh", :password => "secret", :except => [:index, :show]
def index
@posts = Post.all
# snipped for brevity
</ruby>
We also only want to allow authenticated users to delete comments, so in the
+CommentsController+ we write:
<ruby>
class CommentsController < ApplicationController
http_basic_authenticate_with :name => "dhh", :password => "secret", :only => :destroy
def create
@post = Post.find(params[:post_id])
# snipped for brevity
</ruby>
Now if you try to create a new post, you will be greeted with a basic HTTP
Authentication challenge
!images/challenge.png(Basic HTTP Authentication Challenge)!
h3. What's Next?
Now that you've seen your first Rails application, you should feel free to
update it and experiment on your own. But you don't have to do everything
without help. As you need assistance getting up and running with Rails, feel
free to consult these support resources:
* The "Ruby on Rails guides":index.html
* The "Ruby on Rails Tutorial":http://railstutorial.org/book
* The "Ruby on Rails mailing list":http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk
* The "#rubyonrails":irc://irc.freenode.net/#rubyonrails channel on irc.freenode.net
Rails also comes with built-in help that you can generate using the rake command-line utility:
* Running +rake doc:guides+ will put a full copy of the Rails Guides in the +doc/guides+ folder of your application. Open +doc/guides/index.html+ in your web browser to explore the Guides.
* Running +rake doc:rails+ will put a full copy of the API documentation for Rails in the +doc/api+ folder of your application. Open +doc/api/index.html+ in your web browser to explore the API documentation.
h3. Configuration Gotchas
The easiest way to work with Rails is to store all external data as UTF-8. If
you don't, Ruby libraries and Rails will often be able to convert your native
data into UTF-8, but this doesn't always work reliably, so you're better off
ensuring that all external data is UTF-8.
If you have made a mistake in this area, the most common symptom is a black
diamond with a question mark inside appearing in the browser. Another common
symptom is characters like "ü" appearing instead of "ü". Rails takes a number
of internal steps to mitigate common causes of these problems that can be
automatically detected and corrected. However, if you have external data that is
not stored as UTF-8, it can occasionally result in these kinds of issues that
cannot be automatically detected by Rails and corrected.
Two very common sources of data that are not UTF-8:
* Your text editor: Most text editors (such as Textmate), default to saving files as
UTF-8. If your text editor does not, this can result in special characters that you
enter in your templates (such as é) to appear as a diamond with a question mark inside
in the browser. This also applies to your I18N translation files.
Most editors that do not already default to UTF-8 (such as some versions of
Dreamweaver) offer a way to change the default to UTF-8. Do so.
* Your database. Rails defaults to converting data from your database into UTF-8 at
the boundary. However, if your database is not using UTF-8 internally, it may not
be able to store all characters that your users enter. For instance, if your database
is using Latin-1 internally, and your user enters a Russian, Hebrew, or Japanese
character, the data will be lost forever once it enters the database. If possible,
use UTF-8 as the internal storage of your database.
|