Well the title Question pretty much sums it up, But I'd like to detail a scenario anyways,
I've created a DemoController, (I have not created a Resource model), and my routes.rb looks like this:
DispatchMe::Application.routes.draw do
root to: "demo#index"
end
From the demo controller I'm dong the following:
class DemoController < ApplicationController
def index
redirect_to :action => 'show'
end
def show
end
end
There is a file in: app/views/demo/show.html.erb of course, And I'd expected that template to be rendered but instead I'm getting the following error:
ActionController::RoutingError (No route matches [GET] "/assets")
and this URL is generated as a result from the redirect:
/assets?action=show&controller=demo
Am I missing something here? I thought rails was supposed to render the action's template for such cases.
Note. I understand that If I create a route like get 'show' => "demo#show" and call redirect_to show_path it'll work just fine, But I need to know if that's mandatory?
Thank you very much!
For the desired behavior, use render instead of redirect_to:
class PagesController < ApplicationController
def index
render :action => "show"
end
def show
end
end
EDIT:
You can use redirect_to on other actions, but from what I can tell, the index action sets the base path. To simplify route definition, use resources :controller_name. You can view the routes generated by resources by typing rake routes in your command line.
Example:
demo_controller.rb
class DemoController < ApplicationController
def index
end
def show
redirect_to :action => 'index'
end
end
routes.rb
DispatchMe::Application.routes.draw do
root to: "demo#index"
resources :demo
end
development.log
Started GET "/demo/show" for 127.0.0.1 at 2012-04-04 14:55:25 -0400
Processing by DemoController#show as HTML
Parameters: {"id"=>"show"}
Redirected to http://dispatch.dev/
Completed 302 Found in 0ms (ActiveRecord: 0.0ms)
I'd like to 'fake' a 404 page in Rails. In PHP, I would just send a header with the error code as such:
header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
How is that done with Rails?
Don't render 404 yourself, there's no reason to; Rails has this functionality built in already. If you want to show a 404 page, create a render_404 method (or not_found as I called it) in ApplicationController like this:
def not_found
raise ActionController::RoutingError.new('Not Found')
end
Rails also handles AbstractController::ActionNotFound, and ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound the same way.
This does two things better:
1) It uses Rails' built in rescue_from handler to render the 404 page, and
2) it interrupts the execution of your code, letting you do nice things like:
user = User.find_by_email(params[:email]) or not_found
user.do_something!
without having to write ugly conditional statements.
As a bonus, it's also super easy to handle in tests. For example, in an rspec integration test:
# RSpec 1
lambda {
visit '/something/you/want/to/404'
}.should raise_error(ActionController::RoutingError)
# RSpec 2+
expect {
get '/something/you/want/to/404'
}.to raise_error(ActionController::RoutingError)
And minitest:
assert_raises(ActionController::RoutingError) do
get '/something/you/want/to/404'
end
OR refer more info from Rails render 404 not found from a controller action
HTTP 404 Status
To return a 404 header, just use the :status option for the render method.
def action
# here the code
render :status => 404
end
If you want to render the standard 404 page you can extract the feature in a method.
def render_404
respond_to do |format|
format.html { render :file => "#{Rails.root}/public/404", :layout => false, :status => :not_found }
format.xml { head :not_found }
format.any { head :not_found }
end
end
and call it in your action
def action
# here the code
render_404
end
If you want the action to render the error page and stop, simply use a return statement.
def action
render_404 and return if params[:something].blank?
# here the code that will never be executed
end
ActiveRecord and HTTP 404
Also remember that Rails rescues some ActiveRecord errors, such as the ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound displaying the 404 error page.
It means you don't need to rescue this action yourself
def show
user = User.find(params[:id])
end
User.find raises an ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound when the user doesn't exist. This is a very powerful feature. Look at the following code
def show
user = User.find_by_email(params[:email]) or raise("not found")
# ...
end
You can simplify it by delegating to Rails the check. Simply use the bang version.
def show
user = User.find_by_email!(params[:email])
# ...
end
The newly Selected answer submitted by Steven Soroka is close, but not complete. The test itself hides the fact that this is not returning a true 404 - it's returning a status of 200 - "success". The original answer was closer, but attempted to render the layout as if no failure had occurred. This fixes everything:
render :text => 'Not Found', :status => '404'
Here's a typical test set of mine for something I expect to return 404, using RSpec and Shoulda matchers:
describe "user view" do
before do
get :show, :id => 'nonsense'
end
it { should_not assign_to :user }
it { should respond_with :not_found }
it { should respond_with_content_type :html }
it { should_not render_template :show }
it { should_not render_with_layout }
it { should_not set_the_flash }
end
This healthy paranoia allowed me to spot the content-type mismatch when everything else looked peachy :) I check for all these elements: assigned variables, response code, response content type, template rendered, layout rendered, flash messages.
I'll skip the content type check on applications that are strictly html...sometimes. After all, "a skeptic checks ALL the drawers" :)
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1998-01-20/
FYI: I don't recommend testing for things that are happening in the controller, ie "should_raise". What you care about is the output. My tests above allowed me to try various solutions, and the tests remain the same whether the solution is raising an exception, special rendering, etc.
You could also use the render file:
render file: "#{Rails.root}/public/404.html", layout: false, status: 404
Where you can choose to use the layout or not.
Another option is to use the Exceptions to control it:
raise ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound, "Record not found."
The selected answer doesn't work in Rails 3.1+ as the error handler was moved to a middleware (see github issue).
Here's the solution I found which I'm pretty happy with.
In ApplicationController:
unless Rails.application.config.consider_all_requests_local
rescue_from Exception, with: :handle_exception
end
def not_found
raise ActionController::RoutingError.new('Not Found')
end
def handle_exception(exception=nil)
if exception
logger = Logger.new(STDOUT)
logger.debug "Exception Message: #{exception.message} \n"
logger.debug "Exception Class: #{exception.class} \n"
logger.debug "Exception Backtrace: \n"
logger.debug exception.backtrace.join("\n")
if [ActionController::RoutingError, ActionController::UnknownController, ActionController::UnknownAction].include?(exception.class)
return render_404
else
return render_500
end
end
end
def render_404
respond_to do |format|
format.html { render template: 'errors/not_found', layout: 'layouts/application', status: 404 }
format.all { render nothing: true, status: 404 }
end
end
def render_500
respond_to do |format|
format.html { render template: 'errors/internal_server_error', layout: 'layouts/application', status: 500 }
format.all { render nothing: true, status: 500}
end
end
and in application.rb:
config.after_initialize do |app|
app.routes.append{ match '*a', :to => 'application#not_found' } unless config.consider_all_requests_local
end
And in my resources (show, edit, update, delete):
#resource = Resource.find(params[:id]) or not_found
This could certainly be improved, but at least, I have different views for not_found and internal_error without overriding core Rails functions.
these will help you...
Application Controller
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
protect_from_forgery
unless Rails.application.config.consider_all_requests_local
rescue_from ActionController::RoutingError, ActionController::UnknownController, ::AbstractController::ActionNotFound, ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound, with: lambda { |exception| render_error 404, exception }
end
private
def render_error(status, exception)
Rails.logger.error status.to_s + " " + exception.message.to_s
Rails.logger.error exception.backtrace.join("\n")
respond_to do |format|
format.html { render template: "errors/error_#{status}",status: status }
format.all { render nothing: true, status: status }
end
end
end
Errors controller
class ErrorsController < ApplicationController
def error_404
#not_found_path = params[:not_found]
end
end
views/errors/error_404.html.haml
.site
.services-page
.error-template
%h1
Oops!
%h2
404 Not Found
.error-details
Sorry, an error has occured, Requested page not found!
You tried to access '#{#not_found_path}', which is not a valid page.
.error-actions
%a.button_simple_orange.btn.btn-primary.btn-lg{href: root_path}
%span.glyphicon.glyphicon-home
Take Me Home
routes.rb
get '*unmatched_route', to: 'main#not_found'
main_controller.rb
def not_found
render :file => "#{Rails.root}/public/404.html", :status => 404, :layout => false
end
<%= render file: 'public/404', status: 404, formats: [:html] %>
just add this to the page you want to render to the 404 error page and you are done.
I wanted to throw a 'normal' 404 for any logged in user that isn't an admin, so I ended up writing something like this in Rails 5:
class AdminController < ApplicationController
before_action :blackhole_admin
private
def blackhole_admin
return if current_user.admin?
raise ActionController::RoutingError, 'Not Found'
rescue ActionController::RoutingError
render file: "#{Rails.root}/public/404", layout: false, status: :not_found
end
end
Raising ActionController::RoutingError('not found') has always felt a little bit strange to me - in the case of an unauthenticated user, this error does not reflect reality - the route was found, the user is just not authenticated.
I happened across config.action_dispatch.rescue_responses and I think in some cases this is a more elegant solution to the stated problem:
# application.rb
config.action_dispatch.rescue_responses = {
'UnauthenticatedError' => :not_found
}
# my_controller.rb
before_action :verify_user_authentication
def verify_user_authentication
raise UnauthenticatedError if !user_authenticated?
end
What's nice about this approach is:
It hooks into the existing error handling middleware like a normal ActionController::RoutingError, but you get a more meaningful error message in dev environments
It will correctly set the status to whatever you specify in the rescue_responses hash (in this case 404 - not_found)
You don't have to write a not_found method that needs to be available everywhere.
To test the error handling, you can do something like this:
feature ErrorHandling do
before do
Rails.application.config.consider_all_requests_local = false
Rails.application.config.action_dispatch.show_exceptions = true
end
scenario 'renders not_found template' do
visit '/blah'
expect(page).to have_content "The page you were looking for doesn't exist."
end
end
If you want to handle different 404s in different ways, consider catching them in your controllers. This will allow you to do things like tracking the number of 404s generated by different user groups, have support interact with users to find out what went wrong / what part of the user experience might need tweaking, do A/B testing, etc.
I have here placed the base logic in ApplicationController, but it can also be placed in more specific controllers, to have special logic only for one controller.
The reason I am using an if with ENV['RESCUE_404'], is so I can test the raising of AR::RecordNotFound in isolation. In tests, I can set this ENV var to false, and my rescue_from would not fire. This way I can test the raising separate from the conditional 404 logic.
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
rescue_from ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound, with: :conditional_404_redirect if ENV['RESCUE_404']
private
def conditional_404_redirect
track_404(#current_user)
if #current_user.present?
redirect_to_user_home
else
redirect_to_front
end
end
end
Here is my controller code:-
def image_test
respond_to do |format|
format.js {render :layout => false}
format.html {redirect_to image_test_path}
end
end
I have got a partial by the name of _image_test.html.erb and and a simple view image_test.html.erb
In my routes I have done this:-
match "/image_test", :to => "/index#image_test"
It works fine when the javascript is enabled in the borwser however when I disable the javascript I want it to redirect me to my image_test.html.erb file. Instead I get a no route match error.
Please help me with this.
Thanks,
I created a workaround for this solution which is giving the desired result of redirecting to another page if javascript is disabled in a browser but I do not know if this is the rails way.
I created empty action corresponding view for those actions and redirected to those views in case javascript is disabled.
Here is an example of what I did :-
def javascript_enabled_view
respond_to do |format|
format.js {render :layout => false}
format.html {redirect_to :action => "javscript_disabled_view"}
end
end
I have got a corresponding js.erb file and the partial for the above action which will work if javascript is enabled in the browser.
def javascript_disabled_view
end
I have got the corresponding html.erb file which will work in case javascript is disabled in the browser.
Thanks,
I'm not sure what it is. I've just upgraded to Rails 3.1 from 3.0.9 and here's what I get in my specs:
PeopleController edit action should require owner
Failure/Error: response.should render_template("/public/403.html")
expecting <"/public/403.html"> but rendering with <"search/_search_menu_item">
This is all over my specs in various controllers. I also have this code in my AppController:
def render_403
respond_to do |format|
format.html { render :file => "#{Rails.root}/public/403.html", :status => 403, :layout => false }
format.json { render :json => { :error => true, :message => "Error 403, you don't have permissions for this operation." } }
end
end
And this in PeopleController:
def edit
render_403 unless #person.account.id == current_account.id
end
I'm certain that format.html block gets executed (checked it). However the spec expectation fails. Wonder what is going on here.
(search/_search_menu_item is a partial that gets included onto every page, which basically means that the app layout gets rendered here instead.)
Update: I've replaced render_403 in #edit with render(:file => "#{Rails.root}/public/403.html", :status => 403, :layout => false) to see what happens - got the same result.
Ok, figured it out. Possibly not a Rails problem. At least the problem appears only when running the specs.
I've been checking if 403 pages are rendered with this:
response.should render_template("public/403.html")
Doesn't work no more. Replacing it with
response.status.should == 403
fixed the issue.
I'm upgrading an application from Rails 2 to 3. I use a Rights and Role approach for authentication that worked fine under Rails 2. In my Application Controller (application.rb) I have:
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
def check_authentication
unless session[:user]
session[:intended_resource] = request.request_uri
session[:intended_action] = action_name
session[:intended_controller] = controller_name
redirect_to :controller => "sessions", :action => "new"
return false
end
end
def check_authorization
user = User.find(session[:user])
unless user.roles.detect{|role|
role.rights.detect{|right|
right.action == action_name && right.controller == self.class.controller_path
}
}
flash[:notice] = "You are not authorized to view the page you requested"
request.env["HTTP_REFERER"] ? (redirect_to :back) : (redirect_to :controller => "sessions", :action => "new")
return false
end
end
end
In my other controllers I've included a before filter.
before_filter :check_authentication,:check_authorization
I'm getting the following error message, for example, when I go to my Dashboard Controller.
NameError (undefined local variable or method `check_authentication' for DashboardController:0x0000010291a0c0):
Is there something else I need to change or add to make this work in Rails 3?
Thanks,
Aaron
Make sure that your DashboardController is inheriting from ApplicationController i.e. DashboardController < ApplicationController.
Problem solved. Somehow during my upgrade I had a file named application.rb and application_controller.rb in my controllers folder. Both were defined as ApplicationController < ActionController::Base. The code for my "real" Application Controller was sitting in application.rb and not in application_controller.rb, which was empty. A simple copy-n-paste and things were fine. I don't know how that happened. Running the rails_upgrade plugin didn't go as smoothly as planned.