Reputation: 4583

what is the difference between redirect_to @article and article_path

I am following this rails guides. And I have this following code

class ArticlesController < ApplicationController
    def new
    end

    def show
        @article = Article.find(params[:id])
    end
    def create
        @article = Article.new(article_params)
        @article.save

        redirect_to @article
    end


    private 

        def article_params
            params.require(:article).permit(:title, :text)
        end
end

In the above code, in the create action, I have modified @article to article_path. Which I believe is the same as per the routes.

Prefix Verb   URI Pattern                  Controller#Action
welcome_index GET    /welcome/index(.:format)     welcome#index
         root GET    /                            welcome#index
     articles GET    /articles(.:format)          articles#index
              POST   /articles(.:format)          articles#create
  new_article GET    /articles/new(.:format)      articles#new
 edit_article GET    /articles/:id/edit(.:format) articles#edit
      article GET    /articles/:id(.:format)      articles#show
      # the above route
              PATCH  /articles/:id(.:format)      articles#update
              PUT    /articles/:id(.:format)      articles#update
              DELETE /articles/:id(.:format)      articles#destroy

So as per the routes, I mentioned the article_path. But when I did that, it redirects me to /articles instead of /articles/:id

can anyone explain me what is happening.

Upvotes: 0

Answers (3)

Edvaldo Silva de Almeida Jr

Reputation: 3723

This seems pretty obvious to me.

When you redirect to @article you are redirecting to THAT article defined by that instance stored in the variable. This surely means /articles/:id, where :id is the id of THAT article stored in the variable.

But when you redirect to articles_path you're not going to a particular article, but to the URL of all articles, i.e., /articles. If you redirect to article_path (now singular) without telling which article do you want, you are going to be redirected the same, to a point where you may find all articles, i.e., /articles

It is just a question of thinking about the semantics of the REST calls.

Hope it helps!

Upvotes: 2