Defining Custom and Named Routes in Rails

1. Introduction

This tutorial aims to guide you through the process of defining custom and named routes in Rails. We'll explore how to create routes that do not strictly follow the usual RESTful conventions and how to name your routes for clearer and more meaningful code.

By the end of this tutorial, you'll learn:
- How to define custom routes in Rails
- How to name your routes in Rails

Prerequisites:
- Basic understanding of Ruby on Rails
- Ruby on Rails installed on your local machine

2. Step-by-Step Guide

In Rails, routes are defined in the config/routes.rb file. Rails provides a domain-specific language (DSL) for defining routes.

To define a custom route, you can use the match method. It allows you to match a URL to a corresponding controller action.

For named routes, Rails provides the as option. This allows you to create a named route that generates helper methods.

Best Practices and Tips:

• Try to stick to RESTful routes as much as possible for simplicity and convention.
• Use named routes to make your code more readable and maintainable.

3. Code Examples

Example 1: Defining a Custom Route

# config/routes.rb
Rails.application.routes.draw do
  match '/register' => 'users#new', via: :get
end

In this example, '/register' is the path in the URL, 'users#new' is the controller and action, and via: :get specifies the HTTP method.

Example 2: Defining a Named Route

# config/routes.rb
Rails.application.routes.draw do
  get '/register' => 'users#new', as: 'register'
end

In this example, as: 'register' names the route 'register'. This generates register_path and register_url helper methods which return '/register'.

4. Summary

In this tutorial, we learned:
- How to define custom routes in Rails using the match method
- How to define named routes in Rails using the as option

To continue learning, explore more complex routing patterns and nested resources.

Additional resources:
- Rails Routing
- Rails Routing from the Outside In

5. Practice Exercises

Exercise 1: Define a custom route for a login page. The route should point to a sessions#new action and should be accessible via a GET request.

Solution:

# config/routes.rb
Rails.application.routes.draw do
  match '/login' => 'sessions#new', via: :get
end

Exercise 2: Define a named route for the login page you created above. Name the route 'login'.

Solution:

# config/routes.rb
Rails.application.routes.draw do
  get '/login' => 'sessions#new', as: 'login'
end

These exercises should help solidify your understanding of custom and named routes in Rails. Continue practicing with different controller actions and HTTP methods.