# Newbie - Create menu and send parameters to controller from view.

**URL:** <https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/newbie-create-menu-and-send-parameters-to-controller-from-view/54947>\
**Category:** rubyonrails-talk\
**Created:** [October 9, 2010, 12:41pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/newbie-create-menu-and-send-parameters-to-controller-from-view/54947 "2010-10-09T12:41:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Anders\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Anders\_P](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Anders_P)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 12:41pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/newbie-create-menu-and-send-parameters-to-controller-from-view/54947/1 "2010-10-09T12:41:43Z")

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Hello!

I'm trying to create a menu. I have a controller that takes two attributes, like this:

def category(gender, category) &nbsp;&nbsp;@ads = Ad.find\_all\_by\_gender\_and\_category(gender, category).paginate(:page =\> params[:page]) &nbsp;&nbsp;@title = "Startsidan" &nbsp;&nbsp;render 'home' end

And in my view I have a list with menu options:

\<li class="li\_content"\>\<%= link\_to "Accessoarer", :action =\> "category('dam', 'Accessoarer')" %\>\</li\>\<br /\>

And my routes it look like this:

match '/dam-accessoarer', :to =\> "pages#category('dam', 'Accessoarer')"

But it doesn't work.

I get the following error.

Unknown action

The action 'category('dam', 'Accessoarer')' could not be found for PagesController

Any help on how to solve it would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks! // Anders

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DK11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/91b2a8/32.png) [@DK11](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/DK11)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 3:23pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/newbie-create-menu-and-send-parameters-to-controller-from-view/54947/2 "2010-10-09T15:23:35Z")

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> Hello!
> 
> I’m trying to create a menu. I have a controller that takes two
> 
> attributes, like this:
> 
> def category(gender, category)
> 
> @ads = Ad.find\_all\_by\_gender\_and\_category(gender,
> 
> category).paginate(:page =\> params[:page])
> 
> @title = “Startsidan”
> 
> render ‘home’
> 
> end

Is this your controller code? If so you have issues as (someone correct me if this is a new Rails 3 construct that I am clueless) you should not be taking arguments in the signature. If the params gender and category are needed they should be accessed as params[:gender] params[:category].

So in your view you need something like this below. Also see [http://apidock.com/rails/ActionView/Helpers/UrlHelper/link\_to](http://apidock.com/rails/ActionView/Helpers/UrlHelper/link_to) for info on link\_to helper.

\<%= link\_to “Accessories”, :controller =\> “categories”, :action =\> “show”, :gender =\> “male”, :category =\> “zzz”

and then in your controller action

def show gender = params[:gender] category = params[:category]

# now do what you want with the data

end

David

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Anders\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Anders\_P](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Anders_P)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 4:13pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/newbie-create-menu-and-send-parameters-to-controller-from-view/54947/3 "2010-10-09T16:13:19Z")

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Hi! Thanks for your help. But I still doesn't get it to work. I've changed the controller action so it looks like:

def category &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;gender = params[:gender] &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;category = params[:category] &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;@ads = Ad.find\_all\_by\_gender\_and\_category(gender, category).paginate(:page =\> params[:page]) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;@title = "Startsidan" &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;render 'home' end

And in the view:

\<li class="li\_content"\>\<%= link\_to "Accessoarer", :action =\> 'category', :gender =\> 'female', :category =\> 'Accessoarer' %\>\</

> \<br /\>

When I press the link the url changes to this:

[http://localhost:3000/kategori?gender=female&category=Accessoarer](http://localhost:3000/kategori?gender=female&category=Accessoarer)

I don't get any errors, but it doesn't find anything. Any idea on what might be wrong?

// Anders

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DK11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/91b2a8/32.png) [@DK11](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/DK11)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/newbie-create-menu-and-send-parameters-to-controller-from-view/54947/4 "2010-10-09T16:21:26Z")

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> Hi! Thanks for your help. But I still doesn’t get it to work. I’ve
> 
> changed the controller action so it looks like:
> 
> def category gender = params[:gender]
> 
> ```
> category = params[:category]
> 
> ```

> @ads = Ad.find\_all\_by\_gender\_and\_category(gender,
> 
> category).paginate(:page =\> params[:page])
> 
> ```
> @title = "Startsidan"
> 
> render 'home'
> 
> ```
> 
> end

> And in the view:
> 
> - \<%= link\_to "Accessoarer", :action =\>

> ‘category’, :gender =\> ‘female’, :category =\> ‘Accessoarer’ %\>\</
> 
> > 
> 
> When I press the link the url changes to this:
> 
> [http://localhost:3000/kategori?gender=female&category=Accessoarer](http://localhost:3000/kategori?gender=female&category=Accessoarer)
> 
> I don’t get any errors, but it doesn’t find anything. Any idea on what
> 
> might be wrong?

So you are rendering the ‘home’ view - can you show me this? Also, describe what you are expecting to see. Have you also verified that you are getting good values on @ads and @title (which I assume you are doing something with in your view)? I would recommend if you have not used it yet to get familiar with ruby-debug. This way you can step in to your controller in action and check these attributes (of course even better is get used to writing tests for your code, but I know this might be overwhelming at first).

Let me know - if you need help with ruby-debug let me know — if so do give me the version of Rails and version of Ruby you are running.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Anders\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Anders\_P](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Anders_P)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 5:17pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/newbie-create-menu-and-send-parameters-to-controller-from-view/54947/5 "2010-10-09T17:17:46Z")

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Hi!

Here is what I think it the most relevant part of the home view,

# Renders the menu \<%= render "shared/categories" %\> . . . # Renders ads, unless its empty \<div class="right\_container body\_copy"\> &nbsp;&nbsp;\<% if @ads.empty? %\> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Hittade inga annonser. &nbsp;&nbsp;\<% else %\> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\<%= render @ads %\> &nbsp;&nbsp;\<% end %\> \</div\>

\<div class="paginate body\_copy"\> &nbsp;&nbsp;\<%= will\_paginate @ads, :previous\_label =\> t(:previous), :next\_label =\> t(:next) %\> \</div\>

I'm getting "Hittade inga annonser" which means "Couldn't find any ads" when I click on the link, but it shouldn't be empty. It should render all ads that matches a certain condition, for example, :gender =\> 'female', category =\> ' accessories'. I have checked the database and it should get two rows.

It works when I have methods like this:

def female\_accessories &nbsp;&nbsp;@ads = Ad.find\_all\_by\_gender\_and\_category('dam', 'Accessoarer').paginate(:page =\> params[:page]) &nbsp;&nbsp;@title = "Startsidan" &nbsp;&nbsp;render 'home' end

But this isn't very DRY, since I would need to have an action for every category. I want something slightly more dynamic.

I hope i'm understandable.

Tips and links regarding ruby-debug would be really nice!

Thanks! // Anders

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DK11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/91b2a8/32.png) [@DK11](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/DK11)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/newbie-create-menu-and-send-parameters-to-controller-from-view/54947/6 "2010-10-09T17:37:18Z")

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> Hi!
> 
> Here is what I think it the most relevant part of the home view,
> 
> # Renders the menu
> 
> \<%= render “shared/categories” %\>
> 
> .
> 
> .
> 
> .
> 
> # Renders ads, unless its empty
> 
> \<% if @ads.empty? %\>
> 
> ```
> Hittade inga annonser.
> 
> ```
> 
> \<% else %\>
> 
> ```
> <%= render @ads %>
> 
> ```
> 
> \<% end %\>
> 
> ```
> <%= will_paginate @ads, :previous_label => t(:previous), :next_label
> 
> ```
> 
> =\> t(:next) %\>
> 
> I’m getting “Hittade inga annonser” which means "Couldn’t find any
> 
> ads" when I click on the link, but it shouldn’t be empty. It should
> 
> render all ads that matches a certain condition, for example, :gender
> 
> =\> ‘female’, category =\> ’ accessories’. I have checked the database
> 
> and it should get two rows.
> 
> It works when I have methods like this:
> 
> def female\_accessories
> 
> @ads = Ad.find\_all\_by\_gender\_and\_category(‘dam’,
> 
> ‘Accessoarer’).paginate(:page =\> params[:page]) @title = “Startsidan”
> 
> render ‘home’
> 
> end

> But this isn’t very DRY, since I would need to have an action for

> every category. I want something slightly more dynamic.

Right - this is going to be a very ugly controller in no time. But fix the problem at hand and then you can play with making it dry. Google the term ‘named scopes’ in google and this may help. If nothing else, move this kind of logic into a model, it should not be in a controller. Controller ideally just handles requests and routing of them, business logic should be in models or other classes.

> I hope i’m understandable.
> 
> Tips and links regarding ruby-debug would be really nice!

This is probably a good place to pick up ruby debug.

Do this:

1. gem install ruby-debug (note if you are using Rails 3 and Ruby 1.9.2 you might need: gem install ruby-debug19. This is what I am using.)

2. Now you can put a breakpoint wherever you want by typing ‘debugger’ where you want the execution to stop — so for example:

def female\_accessories debugger

@ads = Ad.find\_all\_by\_gender\_and\_category(‘dam’,

‘Accessoarer’).paginate(:page =\> params[:page])

@title = “Startsidan”

render ‘home’

end

1. Then restart your rails server:

If Rails 3: rails server --debugger

If \< Rails 3: script/server --debugger

1. Now execute your page - load the page. The execution will stop when you get to the break point. Go to your server console and you should see some familiar code and line number. From there you can type in whatever ruby you want to debug (like irb). Type ‘n’ to go to the next line, ‘c’ to continue.

Using this you should be able to figure out what is going on in your code. Great tool to have, I use it often several times a day.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Anders\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Anders\_P](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Anders_P)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/newbie-create-menu-and-send-parameters-to-controller-from-view/54947/7 "2010-10-09T19:07:45Z")

</div>

Thanks for your tips, I think I will follow your suggestion and create a new model 'Category', think it will get a lot cleaner.

Thanks. // Anders

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DK11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/91b2a8/32.png) [@DK11](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/DK11)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 7:24pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/newbie-create-menu-and-send-parameters-to-controller-from-view/54947/8 "2010-10-09T19:24:21Z")

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Glad to help. Definitely if you have not, at least for your models try to start writing some tests – I use rspec now but honestly if you are new to tdd you could use test/unit just fine and get used to the process. The way I see it is in the past before I wrote tests, I would write code and then spend time debugging. I found that writing tests as I go actually formalizes the debugging process I would go through, and then of course the result is a test suite you can run whenever you want — and at least you will know the things you are testing for still work! I promise you will get addicted.