Named routes and path helpers in Ruby on Rails - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Named routes and path helpers in Rails

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple blog application where users can view a list of posts and see details of each post.

🎯 Goal: Create named routes for posts and use path helpers in views to link between pages.

📋 What You'll Learn

Define a resourceful route for posts in config/routes.rb

Create a variable called post_id with the value 5

Use the named route helper posts_path to link to the posts index

Use the named route helper post_path(post_id) to link to a specific post

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Named routes and path helpers are used in Rails apps to create clean, readable links between pages like lists and details.

💼 Career

Understanding named routes is essential for Rails developers to build maintainable navigation and follow Rails conventions.

1

Define resourceful routes for posts

In config/routes.rb, add a resourceful route for posts using resources :posts.

Ruby on Rails

# Add resourceful routes for posts
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use resources :posts to create all standard routes for posts.

2

Create a variable for a post ID

In a controller or view file, create a variable called post_id and set it to 5.

Ruby on Rails

Rails.application.routes.draw do
  resources :posts
end

# Create a variable post_id with value 5
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Just write post_id = 5 to create the variable.

3

Use posts_path helper to link to posts index

In a view file, use the named route helper posts_path inside a link tag to create a link to the posts index page. Write link_to 'All Posts', posts_path.

Ruby on Rails

Rails.application.routes.draw do
  resources :posts
end

post_id = 5

# Use link_to with posts_path to link to posts index
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use link_to 'All Posts', posts_path to create the link.

4

Use post_path(post_id) helper to link to a specific post

In the same view file, use the named route helper post_path(post_id) inside a link tag to create a link to the post with ID 5. Write link_to 'View Post', post_path(post_id).

Ruby on Rails

Rails.application.routes.draw do
  resources :posts
end

post_id = 5

link_to 'All Posts', posts_path

# Use link_to with post_path(post_id) to link to a specific post
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use link_to 'View Post', post_path(post_id) to link to the post detail page.