problem with RESTful forms in Rails 3

Question

okay, so basically, I have a normal form for my model:

= form_for @operator do |f|
blah blah blah

In my operators controller, i have this:

def new
  @operator = Operator.new
  @operator.build_user

  respond_to do |format|
    format.html {}
  end
end

def create
  @user = User.create(params[:operator].delete(:user))
  @user.update_attributes(:login => @user.email)
  @operator = Operator.new(params[:operator].merge(:user => @user))

  respond_to do |format|
    if @operator.save
      format.html {redirect_to new_operator_aircraft_path(@operator)}
    else
      format.html { render :action => "new", :error => @operator.errors }
    end
  end
end

very basic stuff. I have some validates_presence_of stuff in my model so naturally when I submit my form, it should show me that I have errors(and keep the fields I have filled up)

Right so far? yeah. The problem is, it seems I am posting to /operators and that's what renders. I seem to have forgotten about what happens in Rails2.3+ but shouldn't I be redirected to /operators/new again? or was that the intended behavior all along?

Answer 1

Here's what I think you are asking:

After I submit a form with errors, why does the URL read "/operators" rather than "/operators/new".

Thanks to resourceful routing, when submitting a form via POST to "/operators" the create action is called on the OperatorsController. If you encounter errors when saving your operator, you've instructed the controller to render the new action within the same request.

render :action => "new", :error => @operator.errors

This means a redirect is not occurring and therefore the URL remains "/operators".

If a redirect were to occur, you would lose all the state information of the @operator object in the current request, including the errors you encountered as well as the form values you just submitted.

In other words, working as intended.