Pagination and Controller setup

Question

Below is some code that I've been working to simplify, however I feel there is more that can be done. Please note that I did clean up the articles.search method.

class HomeController < ApplicationController
 @@articles_per_page = 6
 def index
 @paged_articles = articles.search(:user_id=> @@user_id, :page=>'1', :per_page=>@@articles_per_page)
 @tags = get_tags
 @next_page_url = url_for(:controller =>:home, :action => :page, :page_id=> 2)
 @page_title = "Recent articles"
 end
 def tags
 @paged_articles = articles.search(:page=>'1',:tags=>params[:tag_name], :per_page=>@@articles_per_page)
 @tags = get_tags
 @next_page_url = url_for(:controller =>:home, :action => :page, :tag_name => params[:tag_name], :page_id=> 2)
 @page_title = "Search articles by tags"
 render :index
 end
 def about
 @page_title = "About"
 end 
 private
 def get_tags
 articles.getTags 'param1', 'param2'
 end
 end

I simplified it this way

class HomeController < ApplicationController
 @@articles_per_page = 6
 @@first_page_articles_options = {:page=>'1', :per_page=>@@articles_per_page}
 @@second_page_url_options = {:controller =>:home, :action => :page, :page_id=> 2}
 def index
 @paged_articles = articles.search(@@first_page_articles_options)
 @tags = get_tags
 @next_page_url = url_for(@@second_page_url_options)
 @page_title = "Recent articles"
 end
 def tags
 @@first_page_articles_options[:tags] = params[:tag_name]
 @paged_articles = articles.search(@@first_page_articles_options)
 @tags = get_tags
 @@second_page_url_options[:tag_name] = params[:tag_name]
 @next_page_url = url_for(@@second_page_url_options)
 @page_title = "Search articles by tags"
 render :index
 end
 def about
 @page_title = "About"
 end
 private
 def get_tags
 articles.getTags 'param1', 'param2'
 end
end

So what do you think? Is there any way to make it more better and cleaner?

Answer 1

You can move urls and titles to helpers and articles search to separate method

class HomeController < ApplicationController
 # this methods can be used in view template
 helper_method :next_page_url, :page_title
 @@articles_per_page = 6
 @@first_page_articles_options = {:page=>'1', :per_page=>@@articles_per_page}
 @@second_page_url_options = {:controller =>:home, :action => :page, :page_id=> 2}
 def index
 @paged_articles = articles.search(@@first_page_articles_options)
 @tags = get_tags
 end
 def tags
 @paged_articles = load_articles
 @tags = get_tags
 render :index
 end
 def about
 @page_title = "About"
 end
 private
 def load_articles
 ...
 end 
 ...
 # helpers
 def next_page_url
 if filter_by_tags?
 url_for(@@second_page_url_options) 
 else
 @@second_page_url_options[:tag_name] = params[:tag_name]
 url_for(@@second_page_url_options)
 end 
 end
 def page_title
 if filter_by_tags?
 "Recent articles" 
 else
 "Search articles by tags"
 end 
 end
 def filter_by_tags?
 params[:tag_name].present?
 end
end

• Alexandre: How do I do it?
• andrykonchin: update my answer
• Alexandre: There is no implementation of helper method yet.
• andrykonchin: next_page_url and page_title declared as helper methods and available in views, see apidock.com/rails/ActionController/Helpers/ClassMethods/…
• Alexey: You should use constants where you use class variables here.