Filters

In our pages controller, several action methods have code that takes the ID 0:00 parameter, finds a page object with that ID and stores it in an instance variable. 0:04 We have code to do this exact same operation at the top of the show, edit, 0:10 update and destroy methods. 0:15 Again, the don't repeat yourself principle applies. 0:17 It's usually better to avoid repeated code. 0:19 So let's do like we did with the page params method and 0:22 move the repeated code to a separate method. 0:25 We'll copy the page = page.find(params id) code 0:28 out of the show method and move it to a set page method. 0:32 We'll put this under the private keyword since this method should only 0:37 be accessed within the page's controller. 0:41 Paste start code there. 0:49 Then we'll go back through the show, edit, update, and 0:52 destroy methods and replace the repeated code with a call to set page. 0:55 Now that's one way to do it. 1:07 But running a setup method at the start of a controller action is so 1:09 common that Rails provides another shortcut. 1:12 At the top of your controller class outside of any instance methods, 1:15 you can call the before action method. 1:19 You can pass before action a symbol with the name of a method, set page. 1:24 With this set up, 1:30 the controller will call the set page method before running any action method. 1:30 You can remove all of the explicit calls to set page. 1:35 Let's save this and go to our browser and 1:44 see what happens if we try to reload the list of all pages. 1:46 We get a record not found error. 1:50 Couldn't load page with an ID of blank. 1:51 This happens because of course the index new and 1:54 create methods don't have an ID parameter. 1:56 There's none in the URL for it to load. 1:59 But Rails will try to run the set page method anyway resulting in an error. 2:02 So you may want to add the except argument on to your call to before action. 2:06 Except takes an array of symbols with the names of methods. 2:13 So we'll give it method index, new and create. 2:16 Rails won't run the setup method before 2:24 any action that appears in the except list. 2:26 If we reload our browser, we'll see that the index, 2:29 new and create methods all work correctly again. 2:34 This is because Rails isn't calling set page before them anymore. 2:39 It'll still run set page before the show, edit, update and destroy actions, though. 2:43 If we maintain a list of the actions we don't want to run with set page, though, 2:50 we have to remember to add to the list any time we add another action method. 2:54 We might be better off maintaining a list of the actions we 2:59 do want to run with set page. 3:01 We can do that by changing the except argument to only and 3:03 changing the list of method names from index, show and create to show, 3:09 edit, update and 3:15 destroy. 3:21 Now the before action will run before only these methods. 3:24 If we try all the actions out in our browser, 3:28 we'll see that everything still works correctly. 3:30