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I am using Ruby on Rails 3.2.2 and I would like to generate a proper url_for URL for a nested resource. That is, I have:

# config/routes.rb
resources :articles do
  resources :user_associations
end

# app/models/article.rb
class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
  ...
end

# app/models/articles/user_association.rb
class Articles::UserAssociation < ActiveRecord::Base
  ...
end

Note: generated named routes are like article_user_associations, article_user_association, edit_article_user_association, ...

When in my view I use:

url_for([@article, @article_association])

Then I get the following error:

NoMethodError
undefined method `article_articles_user_association_path' for #<#<Class:0x000...>

However, if I state routers this way

# config/routes.rb
resources :articles do
  resources :user_associations, :as => :articles_user_associations
end

the url_for method works as expected and it generates, for instance, the URL /articles/1/user_associations/1.

Note: in this case, generated named routes are like article_articles_user_associations, article_articles_user_association, edit_article_articles_user_association, ...

However, I think it isn't "good" the way routers are builded / named in the latter / working case. So, is it possible in some way to make the url_for method to work by generating named routes like article_user_association (and not like article_articles_user_association)?

I read the Official Documentation related to the ActionDispatch::Routing::UrlFor method (in particular the "URL generation for named routes" section), but I cannot find out a solution. Maybe there is a way to "say" to Rails to use a specific named router as-like it makes when you want to change the primary key column of a table with the self.primary_key statement...

# app/models/articles/user_association.rb
class Articles::UserAssociation < ActiveRecord::Base
  # self.primary_key = 'a_column_name'
  self.named_router = 'user_association'

  ...
end
Backo
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  • I'm wondering if there is a naming conflict with the "associations" somehow... it just seems to strike a memory of seeing a "model_associations" somewhere. – DGM Jun 06 '12 at 02:35
  • @DGM - I don't know that, but I think it is a common issue where many people stumble. – Backo Jun 06 '12 at 03:05
  • nope, I missed the namespace thing. – DGM Jun 06 '12 at 18:01

1 Answers1

2

Your UserAssociation model is in the Articles namespace, which gets included in the named route:

# app/models/articles/user_association.rb
class Articles::UserAssociation < ActiveRecord::Base
  ...
end

#        route =>           articles_user_association
# nested route =>   article_articles_user_association

If you remove the namespace, you will get the route helper you are looking for:

# app/models/articles/user_association.rb
class UserAssociation < ActiveRecord::Base
  ...
end

#        route =>           user_association
# nested route =>   article_user_association

Unless you have a really good reason for keeping UserAssociation in a namespace, don't.

Substantial
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  • I know that if I remove the namespace I will get the route helper I am looking for, but the reason is that I have a lot of models and, in order to keep all them in an easy "fashion", I locate/store them in sub-directories under the `app/models` directory and so I must namespace those. – Backo Jun 07 '12 at 12:56