Rails 3 route appends _index to route name

Question

I am migrating a Rails 2.3.8 version to Rails 3.0 and so ive rewritten my routes file. When i list the routes using rake routes, i see some route names have _index appended to them. I cant figure out why this is.

Relevant routes:

Rails 2.3.8:

map.namespace "tracker", :path_prefix => "" do |planner|     planner.resources :planner, :collection => {:step1 => :get,                                                 :add => :get,                                                 :unsubscribe => [:get, :post] } end 

Rails 3.0 route:

namespace "tracker", :path => "" do   resources :planner do     collection do       get :step1       get :add       get :unsubscribe       post :unsubscribe     end   end end 

Output from rake routes

Rails 2.3.8

step1_tracker_planner        GET    /planner/step1(.:format) add_tracker_planner          GET    /planner/add(.:format) unsubscribe_tracker_planner  GET    /planner/unsubscribe(.:format)                              POST   /planner/unsubscribe(.:format)  

Rails 3.0

step1_tracker_planner_index       GET    /planner/step1(.:format) add_tracker_planner_index         GET    /planner/add(.:format) unsubscribe_tracker_planner_index GET    /planner/unsubscribe(.:format)                                   POST   /planner/unsubscribe(.:format)  

Any ideas as to why this _index is being added would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

It is because your resource is named :planner instead of :planners that Rails decided to add the _index to any collection nested underneath. My guess it is there for readability.

The action named in the collection normally translates to a verb, so I can see why this makes sense. Take the typical photos resource example given in the routing docs:

resources :photos do   collection do     get 'search'   end end  search_photos GET    /photos/search(.:format) 

But if instead we called the resources 'photo'...

resources :photo do   collection do     get 'search'   end end  search_photo_index GET    /photo/search(.:format) 

In the first case, you search the "photos", and in the second case you search the "photo index".

Answer 2

You should be using either resource :planner either resources :planners depending on what you need. To learn about singular resource and it differences check out Rails Guides.