am a beginner and I appreciate an answer to help me understand where my knowledge gap is:
The app is to display a post. The posts belong to a category (appetizers, entrees...) My thought was to use scopes to display all the appetizers on the posts in one view and then have the entrees in another view and so on.
The models:
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :body, :category_id, :title
belongs_to :category
scope :appetizers, -> { where(post.category.name => "Appetizers")}
end
class Category < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :name
has_many :posts
end
In the view I want to loop through the posts where the category name is "Appetizers".
<table>
<tr>
<th>Title</th>
<th>Body</th>
<th>Category</th>
</tr>
<% @post.appetizers.each do |app| %>
<tr>
<td><%= app.title %></td>
<td><%= app.body %></td>
<td><%= app.category.name%></td>
</tr>
<% end %>
</table>
I am getting an "undefined method" error. I have tried searching for an example here that explains what is a correct solution. I also tried creating a method in the Post model like this:
def appetizers_list
@appetizer_list = Post.appetizers.all
end
Then call the method in the view:
<% @appetizer_list.each do |app| %>
<tr>
<td><%= app.title %></td>
<td><%= app.body %></td>
<td><%= app.category.name%></td>
</tr>
Obviously I am confusing what needs to be done after creating the scope and how to get the view to "see" it. Or if I need a scope at all and it can be done in a more simple way.
So is there a best practices for retrieving subsets of data in rails and displaying them to the view?
what and where is the reported error?
undefined method `each' for nil:NilClass
Extracted source (around line #13):
10:
11: </tr>
12:
13: <% @appetizers_list.each do |app| %>
14: <tr>
15: <td><%= app.title %></td>
16: <td><%= app.body %></td>
I did try what was suggested in this blog post - http://www.jacopretorius.net/2012/02/scopes-in-rails.html which involves creating a controller action adding a custom route and creating a link_to in the view. This worked but at the expense of adding more to the controller. Here is that solution:
Action in Post Controller:
def appetizers
@posts = Post.appetizers
render 'index'
end
Route:
get 'posts/appetizers' => 'posts#appetizers', :as => 'appetizers_posts'
Change in Post Model:
scope :appetizers, -> { where(:category_id => 3)}
And change in the view to be a link:
<% @posts.each do |post| %>
<tr>
<td><%= post.title %></td>
<td><%= post.body %></td>
<td><%= post.category.name%></td>
</tr>
<% end %>
<%= link_to 'Appetizers', appetizers_posts_path %>
So this works but it seems like it is not the best way to do it - seems like the controller would get bloated if there are a lot of categories. Another issue is that in the scope I have to use category_id => 3 to get the appetizers to list. I would like at least to have "post.category.name => "Appetizers" so to be more clear about what is being scoped but this give me an error:
undefined method `key?' for nil:NilClass
I have a feeling there are many ways to display the appetizer listing in the view. Adding actions to the controller and adding routes seems not elegant. Can you suggest an alternative and or point to the concept I seem to be missing in understanding how to display a subset of information from the database in the view. I would like to use scopes and perhaps a method in the model...
Again, sorry for not posting the error, I appreciate any comments you can give on the subject.
So this works but it seems like it is not the best way to do it - seems like the controller would get bloated if there are a lot of categories. Another issue is that in the scope I have to use category_id => 3 to get the appetizers to list. I would like at least to have "post.category.name => "Appetizers" so to be more clear about what is being scoped but this give me an error:
undefined method `key?' for nil:NilClass
I have a feeling there are many ways to display the appetizer listing in the view. Adding actions to the controller and adding routes seems not elegant. Can you suggest an alternative and or point to the concept I seem to be missing in understanding how to display a subset of information from the database in the view. I would like to use scopes and perhaps a method in the model...