Rails' link_to method: GETing when it should DELETE - ruby-on-rails-3

Question

I'm following Michael Hartl's Rails Tutorial, and for some reason the following code:
<%= link_to 'delete', user, :method => :delete, :confirm => "You sure?",
:title => "Delete #{user.name}" %>
Issues a GET request (as I verified by checking the rails server log). I also verified that the following line is in my application view:
<%= javascript_include_tag :all %>
One thing I didn't quite understand, and it's probably the source of my problem: where is the "delete" method defined? I verified in Hartl's source code that he defines a "destroy" method in the controller, not "delete". But even if I change the link_to to :method => :destroy, it just issues a GET.
I'm using Rails 3.1. Any tips?

Answer 1

Also check that this is in your application.js:
//= require jquery
//= require jquery_ujs
Apparently I had the jquery without the jquery_ujs and I had the same problem until I added that.
Note that you may need to add these lines above any import statements within application.js.

Answer 2

Most browsers don't actually support the DELETE verb, so Rails fakes it by modifying the HTML it generates. Rails tacks on a HTML5 attribute called data-method and sets it to "delete". So when a user clicks on the link, it is actually issued as a GET request, but the data-method attribute allows for some Rails magic and means your routing code should recognize it as a DELETE request.
edit:
You can test it yourself in the console. Run bundle exec rails c to get into the console, and look at the HTML that this generates:
helper.link_to "delete", "foobar/delete", :method => 'delete'
The HTML should look like this:
delete

Answer 3

You should use the following code
<%= button_to "delete", #user_current, :method => "delete" %>
It will solve the problem or add this line //= require jquery_ujs to application.js and use:
<%= link_to 'delete', user, :method => :delete, data: {:confirm => "You sure?" } ,
:title => "Delete #{user.name}" %>

Answer 4

As browsers don't support the DELETE verb, Rails creates a workaround for this problem by simulating a DELETE request through a standard GET or POST. The way method: :delete works is with a JavaScript handler for all links with data-method="delete" which modifies the request so Rails
processes it as a DELETE. This JavaScript handler is provided by the jquery_ujs library.
There are several things that could have gone wrong:
Make sure you have both jquery and jquery_ujs included in your application.js. Without both nothing will process the data attributes.
Make sure the link in question really has the method: :delete option specified.
Make sure for some reason you haven't stopped the event propagation of the link in question, like so for example:
$( 'a' ).click( function( event ) {
event.stopPropagation()
})
As this would prevent the jquery_ujs handlers from being executed and the request will never be modified and will remain just a standard GET.

Answer 5

I faced the same problem with Michael's tutorial. The data-method="delete" actually works as expected - it does call the destroy action in the controller. The reason it tries to GET (and eventually fail) is the following:
You'll notice that one of the before_filter's in the controller is set to signed_in_user, and in session_helper.rb, you'll notice that signed_in_user calls store_location (private method), which updates session[:return_to] to the current URL.
So, back in your controller's destroy action, it tries to redirect_back_or which results in GET current_url. I modified the signed_in_user helper to only call store_location when user is not signed in already.

Answer 6

On rails 5 :
Have the same problem, all 'DELETE' posts were compromised, affecting my crud pages AND devise signout... to solve the problem all I had to do was :
//= require rails-ujs

Answer 7

All we need is add the below line of code
//= require jquery_ujs
It seems like a bug:))

Answer 8

You want to do this in Rails 6+:
link_to(
'Delete Me',
some_controller_path(model),
data: { method: :delete }
)

Answer 9

Use button_to instead of link_to.