rails controller for mixed nested and non-nested resources

Question

I'm working on a blog like application, my user module has_many posts and the posts module belongs_to user

I want to access both users/:id/posts and posts/

routes.rb is something like this:

resources :users do
  resources :posts
end

resources:posts

how can i know within the posts controller if its accessed directly (/posts) or through the nested route (/users/:id/posts) ?

for example, what should be the index method of the posts controller for doing the correct INDEX action for /users/:id/posts and for /posts

is there a better way for doing this ?

Answer 1

One solution could be to use a before filter on your controller, like:

before_filter :load_user

def load_user
  @user = User.find(params[:user_id]) if params[:user_id]
  @posts = @user ? @user.posts : Post.scoped
end

Then you have to rewrite your controller a bit to function properly.

No refactoring needed on index action, @posts already loaded correctly, but you can do further filtering as you like

def index
  @posts = @posts.where('updated_at < ?' Time.now)
end

Then update every member action: new, create, show, edit, update, destroy and use posts as a base like:

def new
  @post = @posts.build
end

def create
  @post = @posts.build(params[:task])
end

def show
  @post = @posts.find(params[:id])
end

def edit
  @post = @posts.find(params[:id])
end

def update
  @post = @posts.find(params[:id])
end

def destroy
  @post = @posts.find(params[:id])
end

Of course you can add other before filters to remove duplicate code.

Answer 2

Check the params.

If just post you'll just have :id

If user/post you'll have user and ID for post.

So check if params[:user]...

n.b. If not user, try params[:user_id]

As for the index method for posts I think it will actually be the SAME in both cases. What will change things is its usage, association and scoping within user.