Stop Rails from trying to provide a template / ActionView::MissingTemplate

Question

I have a simple angular rails app that I am trying to get wired up.

Here is my rails controller:

class ItemsController < ApplicationController
  respond_to :json, :html

  def index
    @items = Item.order(params[:sort]).page(params[:page]).per(15)
  end

  def show
    @item = Item.where(params[:id])

    if @item.empty?
      flash[:alert] = "Item number #{params[:id]} does not exist"
    else
      respond_with @item do |format|
        format.json { render :layout => false }
      end
    end
  end
end

I keep getting the ActionView::MissingTemplate error because rails keeps trying to serve up an erb template. I don't want a template!! I just want json. Can some one please give the definitive respond_to/respond_with syntax that will rid me of templates forever?

Answer 1

there are two ways in rails for rendering, CMIIW

first, as default, it will render a view template, example

  def show
  end

then it will render default show view template, example: app/views/controller_name/show.html.erb

second is by manual render, use render method

if you want to respond to json only, then:

class ItemsController < ApplicationController
  def show
    id = params.require(:id)
    @item = Item.find_by(id: id)

    if @item.nil?
      render json: { message: "Item number #{id} does not exist", status: :not_found }
    else
      render json: @item
    end
  end
end

no need to use respond_to, and it's been removed from newest rails too

rails guide about render is really useful, you can read it here