Routing error in nested resources

rubyonrails-talk
1

I am using nested resources as follows:   map.resources :topics do |topics|     topics.resources :items do |items|       items.resources :attachments     end   end

When I generate a RESTful path for new item in the console: app.new_topic_item_path(2) then I get correct path as '/topics/2/items/new'.

However, for the new attachment I am getting error: app.new_topic_item_attachment_path(22) gives - ActionController::RoutingError: new_topic_item_attachment_url failed to generate from {:action=>"new", :controller=>"attachments", :topic_id=>22}, expected: {:controller=>"attachments", :action=>"new"}, diff: {:topic_id=>22}

        from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.1.0/lib/action_controller/routing/route_set.rb:375:in `raise_named_route_error'         from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.1.0/lib/action_controller/routing/route_set.rb:339:in `generate'         from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.1.0/lib/action_controller/url_rewriter.rb:131:in `rewrite_path'         from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.1.0/lib/action_controller/url_rewriter.rb:110:in `rewrite_url'         from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.1.0/lib/action_controller/url_rewriter.rb:88:in `rewrite'         from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.1.0/lib/action_controller/integration.rb:218:in `url_for'         from (eval):17:in `new_topic_item_attachment_path'         from (irb):5.

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Why is it failing and how to fix this? And, why is it generating '{:action=>"new", :controller=>"attachments", :topic_id=>22}' ? Shouldn't it pass item_id rather than topic_id?

Any clues?

2

Hi Carlos!

Because of the nesting. For example, I recently hacked up a version of Beast which is nested similarly to yours: Forums with many Topics with many Posts. Creating a new post has the following resource path: / forums/:forum_id/topics/:topic_id/posts/new Even though the topic_id in my case is globally unique, it still needs the forum_id for that path.

You don't have to do that, though. You could leave them as non-nested and then just use associations, i.e. Topics has_many Items

I like nested resources conceptually but they do make url generation a little confusing.

Just remember to use: "rake routes" liberally so that you always know what routes are available and how to map them.

:slight_smile:

-Danimal