i have this set up map.connect 'startrekvoyager/episodes', :controller => 'categories', :action => 'show', :id => 2
but when i call link_to "Voyager", :controller => :categories, :action => :show, :id => 2
it comes up as http://brocoum.com/voter/categories/show/2
i want it to come up as http://brocoum.com/voter/startrekvoyager/episodes
just so it's more readable
is there a way to do this "reverse" route lookup?
Thanks!
Try removing the default route or placing it after the route you wish to have precedence.
-Rob
Rob Biedenharn http://agileconsultingllc.com Rob@AgileConsultingLLC.com
Arranging it hasnt worked, and i cant get rid of the defaults because ill need them for other things. Heres my routes:
map.home '', :controller => 'categories'
map.connect 'startrekvoyager/episodes', :controller => 'categories', :action => 'show', :id => 2 map.connect 'startrekdeepspacenine/episodes', :controller => 'categories', :action => 'show', :id => 4
map.connect 'startrekvoyager/characters', :controller => 'categories', :action => 'show', :id => 5 map.connect 'startrekdeepspacenine/characters', :controller => 'categories', :action => 'show', :id => 6
# Allow downloading Web Service WSDL as a file with an extension # instead of a file named 'wsdl' map.connect ':controller/service.wsdl', :action => 'wsdl'
# Install the default route as the lowest priority. map.connect ':controller/:action/:id.:format' map.connect ':controller/:action/:id'
Arranging it hasnt worked, and i cant get rid of the defaults because ill need them for other things. Heres my routes:
Well, you can eliminate the need for default routes 
Seriously, use map.resources or
with_options :controller => 'some' do |s| s.bar 'foo/bar', :action => 'show', :id => 1 s.baz 'foo/baz', :action => 'show', :id => 2 end
and make sure there's only one possible match for a given set of parameters.
If you use named routes rather than map.connect everywhere, you can:
map.stv_episodes('startrekvoyager/episodes', :controller => 'categories', :action => 'show', :id => 2)
link_to "Star Trek Voyager: Episodes", stv_episodes_path
rather than specifying the id (which ties you to the particulars of the data that I would personally avoid, but at least the change would be limited to your routes file).
-Rob
Rob Biedenharn http://agileconsultingllc.com Rob@AgileConsultingLLC.com
The reason I can't use named routes is because I'm writing my "index" page.
You can see it here. http://www.brocoum.com/voter/
Also, everything is stored generically in my database. I wanted it to be as flexible as possible. In other words, not everything is going to be Star Trek, or a TV show, or have characters and episodes.
The entire backend is simply an acts_as_tree Category model and an
Item model. Each category has subcategories, and the subcategories
have items. Who knows, I might want to vote on fruit one day 
Anyway, a named route like st_voy_url will never work because I will never manually link to it. My index page simply iterates over all categories with items and spits out an unordered list.
Does it make sense what I'm saying and what I'm trying to do?
Two basic options. First you can create a named route:
map.<route_name> 'route', :controller=>...
That way you can build your link_to's, etc using <route_name>_url and <route_name>_path. You'll probably have to ditch the forward slash in favor or a dash, however.
Second, you can override the 'to_param' method of ActiveRecord::Base. By default it returns the id of the record but you can tell it to return anything... including text. With that in mind I'd suggest something like this:
class TelevisionSeries has_many :episodes has_many :characters
def to_param name.gsub(/\s+/, '_').dasherize end
... end
With that you can use the default RESTfully named routes if you also nest the routes like so:
map.resources :television_series |tv| tv.has_many :episodes tv.has_many :characters end
Which will result in routes like this:
http://localhost:3000/television_series/deep-space-nine/episodes http://localhost:3000/television_series/deep-space-nine/characters
The last thing to remember is that you'll receive the dasherized name of the series in params[:id] so you'll have to operate on it before attempting to find... and you'll use find_by_name.
Well, I don't think you'll ever be able to get URLs to look as nice that way, but I see what you mean. Have you considered overriding #to_param in your model to be something like a permalink? At least then your URL would be something like:
http://www.brocoum.com/voter/categories/show/2-star-trek-voyager-episodes
-Rob
Rob Biedenharn http://agileconsultingllc.com Rob@AgileConsultingLLC.com
Well, I don't think you'll ever be able to get URLs to look as nice that way, but I see what you mean. Have you considered overriding #to_param in your model to be something like a permalink? At least then your URL would be something like:
http://www.brocoum.com/voter/categories/show/2-star-trek-voyager-epis…
-Rob
Rob Biedenharn http://agileconsultingllc.com R...@AgileConsultingLLC.com
whoa, that link URL actually works I guess you can put anything
you want after the number.
thanks for all the help you guys, I'm not sure what I'll do, but it's not really a big deal anyways. I might just use named routes and manually link them.