How to shorten a too long phoenix router path helper name?

Phoenix Forum Questions / Help
1

Please suppose I have the following embedded routes in my router file :

`resources "/sections", SectionController do
  resources "/subsections", SubsectionController do
    resources "/categories", CategoryController do
      resources "/subcategories", SubcategoryController
    end
  end
end

With this i’m ending up with path helper like “section_subsection_category_subcatgory_path”.
I searched a way to specify a short name by providing options to the resources macro, but it doesn’t help…
The options I found are :param, :as, :name but none of them can change the path helper.

For the moment I define my self functions with shorter name in specific view file, to call the long name path helpers from my templates.

What could be a better solution to this ? Or maybe is it possible in elixir to define alias on function name ?

2

You could try putting this in your router file:

defdelegate short_name(), to: __MODULE__, as: :section_subsection_category_subcatgory_path
3 Likes
3

You can use scopes for nesting, while not affecting the path helper unless you want it to.

1 Like
4

Maybe I don’t understand what you’re suggesting… but if I avoid to use nested scopes here, it’s because with the resources macro I get the job done with a lot of less lines. If I use only nested scopes, for a CRUD set of routes, I will write at least 7 lines of code. That’s why I found “resources” macro very helpful for my use case.

Or maybe is there a way to do the same thing as “resources” macro does, with just scopes in few lines?

5

Hi, thank you for this tip. I didn’t know it. :slight_smile:
Thanks again. ^^

6

I answered a similar question on slack yesterday so here’s a copy of the example:

resources "/product", ProductController, only: [:index, :create, :update, :show] do 
  resources "/attribute", ProductAttributeValueController, only: [:show, :create]   
end
---
resources "/product", ProductController, only: [:index, :create, :update, :show]
scope "/product/:product_id" do
  resources "/attribute", ProductAttributeValueController, only: [:show, :create]
end

So it’s a line more for each level of nesting, but you can control the route helpers via the :as option on the scope.

5 Likes
7

Ah ok now it’s very clear for me. Just one more line at each nested level than what I’m doing and my problem of router helpers name is nicely solved. I could even change the name of the ID paremeter in the url if I want to (ex: /product/:prod_id).
Thank you ! :sunny:

8

I was looking for something like this today and stumbled upon this thread.
So, just in case someone else also encounters this, I want to leave a minor contribution…
As per today (using Phoenix 1.4.11), you can just:

resources "/blog", BlogController  do 
  resources "/posts", AwesomePostController, as: :post   
end
# Routes.blog_post_path(@conn, :index, @post)

As a remark on:

The documentation states that the :as option does exactly this (maybe it didn’t work in the past)

:as - configures the named helper exclusively

9

Well you’re right.
I was probably having trouble expressing myself, but I was looking for something a bit more complicated.

For example:

resources "/blog", BlogController  do
  resources "/posts", AwesomePostController, as: :post
  # Will result in Routes.blog_post_path(@conn, :index, @post)
 
  resources "/posts", AwesomePostController do
    resources "/comments", AwesomeCommentController, as: :comment, namespace: Blog
  end
  # Will result in Routes.blog_awesome_post_comment_path(@conn, :index, @post)
  # but I want Routes.blog_comment_path(@conn, :index, @post)
end

namespace option passed above is just my invention to explain the behaviour I was looking for.

So using scope is the better solution in my my case.

Now I’m wondering if one can still pass the :as option to resources macro when calling it with a do block:

resources "/blog", BlogController, as: :my_blog  do 
  resources "/posts", AwesomePostController, as: :post   
end
# Should result in Routes.my_blog_post_path(@conn, :index, @post)

or:

resources "/blog", BlogController, as: nil  do 
  resources "/posts", AwesomePostController, as: :post   
end
# Should result in Routes.post_path(@conn, :index, @post)

Probably the last case won’t work.

Edit: So to sum up, the as option allow to alter the default Router helper name at the nesting level of the route definition, but it can’t alter the parent namespace. I hope what I’m saying is understandable. :sweat_smile:

1 Like
10

I understand your original problem now. This namespace example you provided is in fact what scopes represent conceptually in my head :grin:.

When I was looking for a solution I’ve searched exactly this: “short path helper phoenix”, and this thread was the first result on Google’s search. So I hope my comment ads value for anyone else reaching for a similar solution - worst-case scenario two useful techniques are being explained in this thread haha :laughing:

1 Like
11

Hello from the future!

  resources "/requests", GroupRequestController, only: [], as: :requests do
      post "/accept", GroupRequestController, :accept, as: :accept
      post "/decline", GroupRequestController, :decline, as: :decline
    end

creates:
request_accept_path and request_decline_path instead of group_request_group_request_paths

Cheers to the 2024 folks.

1 Like
12

Afaik you can even ‘reset’ the nesting of the helper names. It’s in the docs (writing at mobile, so no link). Something should have the value :false.

2 Likes
13

For reference, it’s in the Phoenix.Router.scope/2 Options doc:

  • :as - a string or atom containing the named helper scope. When set to false, it resets the nested helper scopes.
  • :alias - an alias (atom) containing the controller scope. When set to false, it resets all nested aliases.
2 Likes