Rails, is it a good practice to create a method without a view?

Question

I have a model AdminUser, a folder admin_users in my views with 2 views only (dashboard and index), and an AdminUsersController which is:

class AdminUsersController < ApplicationController
  def dashboard
  end

  def index
  end

  def login
    if params[:admin_user][:username].present? && params[:admin_user][:password].present?
      found_user = AdminUser.where(:username => params[:admin_user][:username]).first
      if found_user
        authorized_user = found_user.authenticate(params[:admin_user][:password])
        session[:admin]=params[:admin_user][:username]
      end
    end
    if authorized_user
       redirect_to :controller => 'admin_users', :action => 'dashboard'
    else
      render :nothing => true, :status => :ok
    end 
  end
end

Although I have an action for login, I do not have a view for it, because I don't really need it.

But the fact that Rails searches for a view make me think that I am doing something wrong; or at least not doing something the Rails-y way.

Should I do this in another way?

Answer 1

You are not required to have a view. In fact quite a few good reasons exist to not need a view:

• actions that redirect before returning, such as the standard Rails create and update actions
• actions that render inline, such as CSV generators
• actions that render ajax results
• actions that are endpoints for REST APIs

The conventions are there for the most common circumstances, but there are also conventions for lesser common, and still valid situations.

Note that methods that are not intended to be renderable actions should be placed in the protected or private section of the class to keep them separated from actual actions. Don't expose any methods in the public interface of the controller, except those that are intended to be actions.

If you do happen to have an action (as does the example in the question), you can convince Rails to bypass the search for a view corresponding to the action by returning early. While it would seem like redirect_to would be sufficient, it's actually only part of the response. The common way to do this is use the redirect_to :page and return idiom.

For the example given, use this:

if authorized_user
  redirect_to :controller => 'admin_users', :action => 'dashboard' and return
else
  render :nothing => true, :status => :ok
end 

See these excellent questions and answers for more detail:

• redirect_to != return
• Redirect_to and render with return
• How do I stop controller execution after using redirect_to? (Using Rails)

Answer 2

Not having a view is completely fine. When you add methods to your controller that you don't want views for, such as create/update/destroy methods, you'll notice you need to add a "render" or "redirect_to" statement within that method that points to another view. This tells rails not to follow the norm and look for a view with that actions name.