Converting Ruby code into Ruby on Rails Web Application

Question

Let me preface this by saying that I am very new to Ruby and Ruby on Rails, and have been unsuccessful in finding a clear demonstration of translating a working Ruby program to a web application powered by Rails.

Ruby Part: I have a simple class that allows a user to create a "stick" on which she can set an ant to any open inch spot, whose direction is randomized to move up/down. The user can then call a run command and see the ants as they move up or down the pole until the ants fall off either end. The user can then check the minimum and maximum times it takes an ant on the pole to fall off of it.

Rails Part: Because the output of this program can changed depending on the initial directions of the ants, I do not see a need to employ a database over many instances.

Questions: Should my model class hold all of the code I have already written? If I want to build a simple webpage that allows a user to create a stick, the array of which is then displayed and continually updated, and then add the name and location of each ant, how (and from where) would the methods I had written be called upon?

I'm probably completely wrong, but I suspect my code should be in the models package, and the calls to the methods I created will be in the controller. That would mean that I should make sure that the new method within the controller class takes in an integer (for size). I should also write a new method that creates and sets the ant, and takes in a string and integer (also in the controller).

The code would look like:

def new(size)
  @marchingant = Marchingant.new(size)

  respond_to do |format|
    format.html # new.html.erb
    format.json { render json: @marchingant }
  end
end

def createAndSet(loc, name)
  @marchingant.createAndSet(loc, name)
end

(The methods within the model class validates the input) Thanks for your help!

jxpx777 · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-28 21:02:04Z

Models contain states, controllers control behavior, and views display the data to the user. So, in this case, you should probably have an Ant model and maybe a Stick model. The Ant would be related to the Stick and its position should probably be within the bounds of the Stick's size. So, on the index action (or wherever you're setting this all up) you'd initialize a Stick and as the user interacts with the application, use AJAX to instantiate new Ant objects and display them on the screen. I'm not sure how you envision createAndSet being called. Would be helpful to understand more about the user's interaction with your application.

My thinking is honestly that Rails doesn't need to be involved here at all. If you're not persisting this to a database and the user doesn't need to be able to retrieve the state of things later on, then I would write the whole thing in Javascript. You could create an Ant and Stick object and expose functions attached to DOM nodes for the user to interact.

The user can only do two things with the app: create a stick of a certain size, and place ants with names along the stick. The create method in the controller class initializes a stick 'def create validates params[:size], :numericality => { :only_integer => true } @stick = Stick.new(params[:size]) end' A createAndSet method would also exist within this controller: 'def createAndSet validates params[:location], :numericality => { :only_integer => true } @stick.createAndSet(params[:location], params[:name]) end' — NumenorForLife, Commented May 28, 2013 at 23:29

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