Rails named routes using complex parameter names
I need to create a nice route for an action expecting ugly nested parameter names (that's given, not something I might change at this time).
So instead of
http://domain.com/programs/search?program[type]=leader&program[leader_id]=12345
I want to
http://domain.com/programs/search/leader/12345
The problem is that Rails route definitions won't handle complex parameter names.
map.programs 'programs/:program[type]/:program[leader_id]', :controller=>..., :action=>...
Again, I cannot change the controller - it is configured to expect these parameter names based on a set of pre-existing search forms. I just want to create a more readable route for some predefined searches.
Of course, there must be a way to create a route that passes input to parameters with more complex names than single-word-downcase-alpha.
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From what I am gathering from your post you need a url like
http://domain.com/programs/search/leader/12345
to create a params hash like
:params => { programs => {:type => "search", :leader_id => "12345"}}
I don't think it can be done. As far as I can tell, you cannot create a nested hash from named_route. Workarounds are possible, but each must modify the controller in some way.
I find this is the least intrusive solution: Set up a simpler route first,
map.programs 'programs/:program_type/:program_leader_id',
:controller=>..., :action=>...
Then I would like to make the link_to or url_for available as a helper so that it can be passed by a programmatic object and make the url correct.
def link_to_programs name, prog
link_to name, programs_url(prog,
:programs =>{:program_type => prog[:type], :prog[:program_leader_id]})
end
Then I need some way to trick the controller into thinking that it has been passed a hash of deeper parameters.
In program_controller:
def fix_bad_params
params.merge!({:programs => {:type => params[:program_type],
:leader_id => params[:program_leader_id])
end
before_filter :fix_bad_params, :only => :action_in_named_route
NB. The link_to switch I listed is incomplete. I used it for a simple demonstration. If you plan on passing other variations, or even using it in a different way of doing things (ex: link_to (@project), you will need to rewrite it. Look at the link_to source to see how best to do it.
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I'm afraid the built-in routing engines won't do what you're looking for. You can certainly disarm the routing engine, but that seems like a lot of work and can lead to other errors.
Have you ever thought about a pre-filter combined with a prettier route? For example:
# in config/routes.rb:
map.connect '/programs/:program_type/leader/:program_leader_id', ...
# in config/initializers/translate_pretty_program_routes.rb
module TranslatePrettyProgramRoutes
def self.included(base)
base.send :include, TranslatePrettyProgramRoutes::InstanceMethods
base.send :prepend_before_filter, :translate_pretty_program_route_params
end
module InstanceMethods
def translate_pretty_program_route_params
params[:program] ||= {}
params[:program][:type] ||= params[:program_type]
params[:program][:leader_id] ||= params[:program_leader_id]
end
end
end
# in app/controllers/programs_controller.rb:
class ProgramsController < ApplicationController
include TranslatePrettyProgramRoutes
end
Meta-programming TranslatePrettyProgramRoutes
is all about getting around class overloading issues in design mode. If it weren't for the class overload, you could just define a method and add it as before_filter
directly in the initializer.
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