resources

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hi, I'm confused about resources. When should one choose to use the resource/REST approach to a model?

For example, for the user model, should I choose to make the user a resource or should I just use the controller only approach with no REST involved?

What I'm doing first is making a registration page for a user. Should I start off with # ruby script/generate resource User

( If I use this approach how do I automatically generate the "7 golden actions?" )

or

# ruby script/generate model User # ruby script/generate controller User

?

I've seen tutorials on how to create resources and use REST, but don't understand when to use the approach.

Any advice or links to references would be greatly appreciated!

2

If you’re looking to build a simple authentication system, there’s already plenty out there.

I recommend using acts_as_authenticated, but if you’re looking for something restful, give restful_authentication a shot.

3

You use a model any time you want to keep data around. In the example you provide, you presumably want to keep information about the user in your application so you would create a User model and fill it with all the business logic required to maintain it.

Resources and REST are about how you *access* models. That's the basic difference. What may be confusing is that generate/scaffold creates both a RESTful API and a model. It may lead you to believe that there is a 'resource' and a 'model' or that in some cases they are synonymous... but they're not. Models~data, resources~data access via HTTP

The restful_autentication plugin (one of those many authentication systems that Ryan refers to while missing the general question you're asking) will demonstrate a good example of models and resources. With that plugin you create a single model (User) with a standard resource (via UsersController). You also create a SessionController that manages only the concept of a 'user session' but has no persistent data... and thus no model behind it.

HTH, AndyV