In my app, I need to perform transactions with external web sites.
(Assume this is a system for placing online orders with restaurants –
it isn’t, but the true purpose will be revealed eventually). Each
restaurant’s online system is slightly different, requiring slightly
different information from the user.
What I want is a landing page where all the restaurants are listed in a
pull-down list. Upon selecting a specific restaurant, the user gets a
view (more likely a partial) for that specific restaurant where they can
enter information.
To pull this off, I think I want a generic Model, View and Controller
for a Restaurant, and then sub-classes for specific restaurants.
I’d prefer not to hard-code the restaurant classes into a file – it
would be better if simply adding the restaurant class files to a
directory caused it to get discovered by the app. And since there can
be an arbitrary number of restaurants, I really don’t want them in the
top-level models / controllers / views directories.
My question is really about how to structure the classes and
directories. What’s the idiom for doing this kind of thing in Rails?
Are there good examples worth emulating?
In my app, I need to perform transactions with external web sites.
(Assume this is a system for placing online orders with restaurants –
it isn’t, but the true purpose will be revealed eventually).
It’s really hard to provide accurate advice with inaccurate information.
Each
restaurant’s online system is slightly different, requiring slightly
different information from the user.
What I want is a landing page where all the restaurants are listed in a
pull-down list. Upon selecting a specific restaurant, the user gets a
view (more likely a partial) for that specific restaurant where they can
enter information.
That’s easy enough.
To pull this off, I think I want a generic Model, View and Controller
for a Restaurant, and then sub-classes for specific restaurants.
No, you probably don’t. What you probably want is a fairly generic
Restaurant object with some sort of configuration property.
I’d prefer not to hard-code the restaurant classes into a file – it
would be better if simply adding the restaurant class files to a
directory caused it to get discovered by the app. And since there can
be an arbitrary number of restaurants, I really don’t want them in the
top-level models / controllers / views directories.
My question is really about how to structure the classes and
directories. What’s the idiom for doing this kind of thing in Rails?
Are there good examples worth emulating?
You can use namespaced models, views, and controllers. But your
architectural approach is almost certainly wrong.
That’s easy enough.
[snip]
No, you probably don’t [want a generic Model, View and Controller
for a Restaurant, and then sub-classes for specific restaurants].
What you probably want is a fairly generic Restaurant object with
some sort of configuration property.
[snip]
You can use namespaced models, views, and controllers. But your
architectural approach is almost certainly wrong.
Marnen:
Methinks you keep your copious wisdom too under wraps. You answer makes
it clear that you think my approach is wrong, but doesn’t really explain
Marnen’s One True Way!
shows me about namespaced routes, namespaced forms, but nothing about
how to organize files and classes to have namespaced models, views and
controllers.
Perhaps my question is too general, so I can re-frame it: is there an
example (on github or in Rails itself) that shows a good way to do this
kind of thing?
What part was unclear? I’ll be happy to elaborate.
[snip]
There should be lots of explanations of dealing with namespaced classes
in Rails.
I agree that there SHOULD be! But I haven’t found one yet. If you
give me a pointer to one good explanation about how to structure
namespaced classes, I’ll be happily preoccupied for a day or two.
That’s easy enough.
[snip]
No, you probably don’t [want a generic Model, View and Controller
for a Restaurant, and then sub-classes for specific restaurants].
What you probably want is a fairly generic Restaurant object with
some sort of configuration property.
[snip]
You can use namespaced models, views, and controllers. But your
architectural approach is almost certainly wrong.
Marnen:
Methinks you keep your copious wisdom too under wraps. You answer makes
it clear that you think my approach is wrong, but doesn’t really explain
Marnen’s One True Way!
What part was unclear? I’ll be happy to elaborate.
shows me about namespaced routes, namespaced forms, but nothing about
how to organize files and classes to have namespaced models, views and
controllers.
Use directories corresponding to the namespaces; that way the autoloader
knows where to find the files.
Perhaps my question is too general, so I can re-frame it: is there an
example (on github or in Rails itself) that shows a good way to do this
kind of thing?
TIA.
There should be lots of explanations of dealing with namespaced classes
in Rails.
But I haven’t found one yet. If you