CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ruby-on-railsrubyruby-on-rails-3
jmc
jmc

Reputation: 610

Rails - Working out how to access a method from a controller via a link

Have a really basic question about rails - spent hours looking on the internet for a solution - but can not find a solution.

I just need to call a method on the clicking of a link.

The idea is I need to export an xml file that is generated by a method in the controller.

firms_controller.rb (exerpt)

.....def xml
    @entries = Entry.find(:all)
    send_data @entries.to_xml,
    :type => 'text/xml; charset=UTF-8;',
    :disposition => "attachment; filename=entries.xml"
end....

I just need to call this method from the firms view page to get the xml file to download, but cannot manage to get it to work. The XML code does work - if I add it to the index method in the controller it works flawlessly.

This is some of the ways I have attempted to get the link working after reading some online articles.

<% url = url_for({:action => "xml", :controller => 'firms'}.merge(params)) %>
<%= link_to "XML", url %>

The most basic way tried

<%= link_to "XML", :action => 'xml' %>

It seems to me like something that should be very simple - but cannot get it to work.

The error I am getting:

ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound in FirmsController#show

Couldn't find Firm with ID=xml

Rails.root: /home/james/rails/KPSmart
Application Trace | Framework Trace | Full Trace

app/controllers/firms_controller.rb:25:in `show'

show method in firms_controller

  def show
  @firm = Firm.find(params[:id])
  end

Have tried messing with the routes to get it to work with no avail.

Thanks for your help

Upvotes: 0

Views: 136

Answers (3)

dnyan waychal
dnyan waychal

Reputation: 433

Try This

In routes write this above your resource we written for firms controller

match 'firms/xml', :controller => 'firms', :action => 'xml',:as => :firms_xml

and link this in following way

<%= link_to "XML", firms_xml_path %>

Upvotes: 2

Xavier Holt
Xavier Holt

Reputation: 14619

Check that link URL!

I don't think it's what you're expecting. When you merge two hashes via hash1.merge(hash2), any duplicate keys will yield those from hash2. And since (if I recall correctly) the params hash has :action and :controller keys added to it during Rails's routing process, you're having your expected route overridden by the route to the current (show) page.

You could try reverse_merge, which would give you a more predictable result, but I'd recommend using Rails's path generation helpers to make your life even easier:

<%= link_to "XML", firm_xml_path(@firm) %>

Hope that helps!

Upvotes: 1

fregas
fregas

Reputation: 3250

This looks like a routing issue or a link issue. Do you need to pass the ID parameter to the XML controller method? Your example links aren't showing that. You need to look up how to pass parameters in your link_to helper:

http://apidock.com/rails/ActionView/Helpers/UrlHelper/link_to

If you have the default routes setup in routes.rb:

match ':controller(/:action(/:id))(.:format)'

Then your link_to should look like:

link_to "XML", :controller => "firms", :action => "xml", :id => 1234

where 1234 is the actual id you're trying to look up.

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions