Count number of times a link is clicked

Question

So i'm trying to record the number of times a link is clicked but can't get over the last hurdle.

I have the following so far:

config/routes.rb

resources :papers do 

    resources :articles do

        resources :clicks
    end 
end

click.rb

class Click < ActiveRecord::Base

    belongs_to :article, counter_cache: true

    validates :ip_address, uniqueness: {scope: :article_id}
end

clicks_controller.rb

class ClicksController < ApplicationController

def create

        @article = Article.find(params[:article_id])

        @click = @article.clicks.new(ip_address: request.ip)

        @click.save

    end
end

article.rb

class Article < ActiveRecord::Base


  has_many :clicks

end

schema.rb

  create_table "clicks", force: true do |t|
    t.integer  "article_id"
    t.string   "ip_address"
    t.datetime "created_at"
    t.datetime "updated_at"
  end

  create_table "articles", force: true do |t|
    t.datetime "created_at"
    t.datetime "updated_at"
    t.text     "title"
    t.string   "url"
    t.integer  "paper_id"
    t.integer  "clicks_count"
  end

index.html.erb -- articles

<% @articles.each do |article| %>

   <div class="articles col-md-4">

   <%= link_to article.url,  target: '_blank' do %>

   <h4><%= article.title %></h4>
   <h5><%= article.paper.name.upcase %></h5>
   <h6><%= article.created_at.strftime("%d %B %y") %></h6>
<% end %>

Firstly, does this setup look correct, does anyone see where i may have gone wrong? Secondly, what i don't know how to set up my view so that when the existing link is clicked the click is registered and the count goes up?

Thanks

Answer 1

Solved with the following.

clicks_controller.rb

Original:

def create

        @article = Article.find(params[:article_id])

        @click = @article.clicks.new(ip_address: request.ip)

        @click.save

    end
end

Amended:

def create

        @article = Article.find(params[:article_id])

        @click = @article.clicks.new(ip_address: request.ip)

        @click.save

        redirect_to @article.url


    end
end

index.html.erb -- articles

Original:

<%= link_to article.url,  target: '_blank' do %>

Amended:

<%= link_to paper_article_views_path(article.id, article), method: :post,  target: '_blank' do %>

Also, i edited the original question to include the routes.rb file.

Answer 2

In my opinion, you should do 2 things :

1) Set all the methods for "clicks" into a Model

For example, you can remove your ClicksController and add this :

class Article
  def create_click(ip_address)
    self.clicks.create({ :ip_address => ip_address })
  end
end

A little note with this code : you have a uniqueness validation in your code. Indeed, when a click already exists for an article and an ip address, the create method will return false. Do not use create! instead, or it will raise an exception.

2) Add a filter :

You can simply add a filter in your ArticlesController. At each show, it will create a click instance for the viewed article

class ArticlesController
  before_filter :create_click, :only => [ :show ]

  def create_click
     @article.create_click(ip_address)
  end
end