how to set up and use a Rails routes prefix
ruby-on-rails, ruby-on-rails-4
Solution
Paths
I'm not sure why it's called `prefix` - it should be called `path helper`:
The bottom line is when you call helpers like `link_to` or `form_tag` etc - they will require `paths` to populate different actions in your app's routing structure.
As Rails favours `convention over configuration` & DRY programming, meaning if you can reference these `path helpers` over using standard `urls`, it will allow you to make one reference & chance the route as required
EG
Calling `articles_path` is far more powerful than referencing `/articles` every time
Routes
To answer your question properly, you will need to appreciate Rails uses `resourceful` routing - basically meaning that every `route` helper you create should be defined around any resource in your application
Due to the MVC structure of Rails, these resources will typically be defined by the `controllers` you use:
#config/routes.rb
resources :articles #-> articles_path etc
You should always reference your resources as they are (in your case `articles`).
To customize the path helper, you'll need to change the reference in the routes file, like this:
#config/routes.rb
resources :articles, as: :document, path: "document" #-> domain.com/documents
This allows you to define custom routes / path helpers, allowing you to call those as you wish
Problem
When running rake routes I see: ``` Prefix Verb URI Pattern Controller#Action articles GET /articles(.:format) articles#index new_article GET /articles/new(.:format) articles#new ``` along with some others I left out. This is because my routes.rb file has: ``` resources :articles ``` My question is what exactly is this Prefix, and how would I change it? From my understanding it is a shortcut to the URI, so in my app I could just refer to new_article instead of articles/new? Do I really refer to @new_article or is there some other format to reference it. Second question, how do I edit that? Lets say I want a prefix called new_document instead of new_article for the get request on that url. What would I put in my routes.rb file? I looked at this link from the rails guides but all it seems to show is how to make the url longer by adding a prefix in front of it.