CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ruby-on-rails
user4584963
user4584963

Reputation: 2523

Rails - Do I need to define 'new' action in controller

In my routes.rb I have the line resources :items. I have a new.html.erb file that is using form_for @item do ... to build a form. In my items controller I define the new action:

def new
  @item = Item.new
end

I am wondering what is the point of this new action definition. When the form is submitted I have a create action that handles it. Is it only for using form_for? What happens if I leave it out? Is there any rails magic going on that will assume this is what I want?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 292

Answers (2)

Rafael Goulart
Rafael Goulart

Reputation: 293

By default, the new action will handle only GET requests. The create action will handle only POST requests. You can take a look of how Rails respond to specific request methods, using the rake routes command.

The new action will respond to the browser's GET html request and assign a empty object, because the user didn't input anything yet. No validation error will be shown.

The create action expects the user has already submitted the form, and will trigger validations/etc. Then, if something wrong happened, it will re-render the form with validation errors. Otherwise, by default a redirect_to will be triggered.

This is just the default. Rails is a Opinionated Framework, but very very flexible.

Upvotes: 1

SteveTurczyn
SteveTurczyn

Reputation: 36860

The new creates a new object for the form_for. The form_for will know to submit create (instead of update) because the object is not persisted. And 'form_for' needs an object anyway (as do all model-backed forms).

new also gives you an opportunity to set up initial values for some attributes, if you so desire.

So, all in all, it is helpful.

Upvotes: 1

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