So I have just come out of an intense religious argument with a colleague.
We have object model and routes.rb:
resources :orgs do
resources :lists do
resources :posts do
resources :replies
end
end
end
All these relations are one-to-many i.e. a list will always belong to exactly 1 org, a post will always belong to exactly 1 list etc. We are very aware of the general aversion to multi-nested routes, but have consciously decided to go in this direction.
Unfortunately this means that when you want to link to editing a reply, you have to write:
edit_org_list_post_reply_path( reply.post.list.org, reply.post.list, reply.list, reply )
which feels very silly.
I want to be able to do something like:
fast_path( action: :edit, model: reply, type: :path )
and use the fact that reply only belongs to one post, which belongs to one list etc. to work out the rest. Something like:
def fast_path options
action = options[:action]
model = options[:model]
path_or_url = options[:type]
model_fields = {
reply: [:org, :list, :post]
post: [:org, :list],
list: [:org]
}[model.class.name]
arguments = model_fields.map { |field| model.send(field) } + [model]
named_route_name = model_fields.join("_") + "_" + path_or_url
named_route_name = action + "_" + named_route_name if action
send(named_route_name, arguments)
end
although I haven't verified that this works or is particularly nice code.
HOWEVER, my colleague has done something like this before, where he overwrote many named routes in the name of making them more pleasant to call. He claims that it lead to nothing but misery, despair and torment, and is fighting tooth and nail to keep such attempts out of our code this time round.
I am very happy to be wrong, so please let us know what you think!
If you don't want to overwrite the path helpers (and there are undoubtedly good reasons not to do so), you could instead add a method to the Reply model like so:
def path_args
[post.list.org, post.list, post, self]
end
and then just call: edit_org_list_post_reply_path(*reply.path_args).