Proposed API change for respond_to

[ry dahl]

On 9/20/07, John Weir <john at smokinggun.com> wrote:
> how would filters and common methods work?

one way this could be done is by attaching a filters as class methods
to the actions. for example

module Controllers::Products
  before Index, Show do |request|
    raise Unauthorized unless request.session[:user].admin?
  end
  ...
end

would take the block argument, add do
  Index.class_eval { @@before_filter = block }
for both Index and Show. At the time of request, the dispatcher could
call that block before instantiating the action.

this is just an example for entertaining the idea - not a proposal - i
haven't thought all the way through it


> > For example,
> >
> > module Controllers::Products
> >   class Index < GetAction
> >     def initialize(params)
> >       @products = Product.paginate(params[:page] || 1)
> >     end
> >
> >     def response_json
> >       @products.to_json
> >     end
> >
> >     def response_html
> >       render 'products/index.erb'
> >     end
> >   end
> >
> >   class Show < GetAction
> >     extra_route ':id'
> >
> >     def initialize(params)
> >       @products = Product.find(params[:id])
> >     end
> >
> >     def response_html
> >       render 'products/show.erb'
> >     end
> >   end
> > end
> >
> > <%= link_to 'Products', Controllers::Products::Index.url %>
> >
> >
> > On 9/20/07, ry dahl <ry at tinyclouds.org> wrote:
> >> Sometimes it seems like actions deserve to be their own objects: we
> >> map routes to them, we'd like to know what parameters they expect, we
> >> want to say which http methods they accept, we assign them
> >> before/after filters, and we even hold collections of them
> >> (Controller.callable_actions). This responds_to issue is another
> >> example of how we'd like to treat actions as objects. We would like
> >> for the controller to look at the request, determine which format to
> >> send, and then simply call my_action.render_json or
> >> my_action.render_html. Simultaneously, our controllers are not very
> >> class like. They are basically instantiate them only to call the
> >> action. Changing the Controller class into a module would not be so
> >> hard in the current Merb - they are (more or less) just containers
> >> for
> >> actions.
> >>
> >> Has anyone else been having these thoughts?
> >>