Rails controller action methods corresponding to static web pages

Question

One of my rails controllers is horribly overcrowded with a bunch of methods that link to static web pages.

Controller

def adventure
end
def cooking
end
def dancing
end
def programming
end
def reading
end
def running
end
def sports
end
def writing
end

For each of the above actions I have seperate view files and routes defined for them.

View Files

adventure.html.erb
cooking.html.erb
dancing.html.erb
programming.html.erb
reading.html.erb
running.html.erb
sports.html.erb
writing.html.erb

Routes

match '/adventure', to: 'pages#adventure', via: 'get'
match '/cooking', to: 'pages#fighting', via: 'get'
match '/dancing', to: 'pages#first_person_shooter', via: 'get'
match '/programming', to: 'pages#programming', via: 'get'
match '/reading', to: 'pages#reading', via: 'get'
match '/running', to: 'pages#running', via: 'get'
match '/sports', to: 'pages#sports', via: 'get'
match '/writing', to: 'pages#writing', via: 'get'

It is quite embarrassing to have code that horrible. Is there any way I can optimize that?

• 200_success: Just to clarify... those controller methods have empty bodies?
• 200_success: What determines the existence of those routes? The fact that a similarly named method exists on the Pages controller? The fact that a similarly named .erb file exists?
• tokland: In those scenarios you simply create a single action with a param key.
• Johnson: Yes, all of those methods have empty bodies, which is why I'd like to change that

Answer 1

You don't need to define empty actions in your Controller.

Your code should work even if you delete all the empty actions, leaving you only with the views and routes:

page_controller.rb:

class PageController < ApplicationController
end

views:

adventure.html.erb
cooking.html.erb
dancing.html.erb
programming.html.erb
reading.html.erb
running.html.erb
sports.html.erb
writing.html.erb

routes:

match '/adventure', to: 'pages#adventure', via: 'get'
match '/cooking', to: 'pages#cooking', via: 'get'
match '/dancing', to: 'pages#dancing', via: 'get'
match '/programming', to: 'pages#programming', via: 'get'
match '/reading', to: 'pages#reading', via: 'get'
match '/running', to: 'pages#running', via: 'get'
match '/sports', to: 'pages#sports', via: 'get'
match '/writing', to: 'pages#writing', via: 'get'

or, if you really want things super DRY:

%w(adventure cooking dancing programming reading running sports writing).each do |page|
 match "/#{page}", to: "pages##{page}", via: 'get'
end

Answer 2

An possible solution is use just one action in the controller so yo can do the following:

config/routes.rb

get '/:static_page', to: 'pages#show', constraints: {static_page: /\A(adventure|cooking|dancing|programming)\z/ }

Be aware that this route should be the last route, also note the constraint to prevent errors trying to render pages that does not exists

Then in you controller just def show method

app/controllers/pages.rb

def show
 render params[:static_page]
end

Then when you need to add a new page just add the page name in the routes constraint and add the respective view

• user3162553: Be aware that this changes your routing helpers.