Rails routes

05 September 2018 - 2 mins read time
Tags: Ruby LastMinutePrep

In Rails, routers are responsible for mapping incoming requests to controller actions. Here are the main features of Rails routers:

  1. RESTful Routing:

    • Rails encourages RESTful routing, where routes correspond to CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations on resources.

    • Example: 
      resources :articles
    • This single line of code creates routes for all CRUD operations on the articles resource, such as GET /articles, POST /articles, GET /articles/:id, etc.

  2. Custom Routes:

    • You can define custom routes for non-CRUD actions or to map URLs to specific controller actions.

    • Example: 
      get 'welcome', to: 'pages#home'
    • This maps the GET /welcome request to the home action in the PagesController.

  3. Route Helpers:

    • Rails provides route helper methods to generate URLs and paths for routes in views and controllers.

    • Example: 
      <%= link_to 'Articles', articles_path %>
    • This generates a link to the index action of the ArticlesController.

  4. Namespaced Routes:

    • You can organize your routes into namespaces to group related routes and controllers.

    • Example: 
      namespace :admin do
  resources :articles
end
    • This creates routes for CRUD operations on articles within the admin namespace.

  5. Route Constraints:

    • You can apply constraints to routes based on request parameters, such as HTTP method, format, or custom conditions.

    • Example: 
      get 'articles/:id', to: 'articles#show', constraints: { id: /\d+/ }
    • This matches the GET /articles/:id route only if :id is a digit.

  6. Route Scoping:

    • You can scope routes to a specific path prefix or namespace, affecting all routes defined within the scope.

    • Example: 
      scope '/admin' do
  resources :articles
end
    • This scopes all routes for articles under the /admin path.

Rails routers provide a powerful and flexible way to define and manage application routes, making it easier to organize and access different parts of your application.