HTTP Routes

In Rails, a route is the part of the URL that determines how an incoming HTTP request is directed to the appropriate controller and action for processing. First, let’s do a quick refresher on URLs and HTTP Request methods.

Parts of a URL

Let’s examine the different parts of a URL:

https://example.org/products?sale=true&sort=asc

In this URL, each part has a name:

• https is the protocol
• example.org is the host
• /products is the path
• ?sale=true&sort=asc are the query parameters

HTTP Methods and Their Purpose

HTTP requests use methods to tell a server what action it should perform for a given URL. Here are the most common methods:

• A GET request tells the server to retrieve the data for a given URL (e.g., loading a page or fetching a record).
• A POST request will submit data to the URL for processing (usually creating a new record).
• A PUT or PATCH request submits data to a URL to update an existing record.
• A DELETE request to a URL tells the server to delete a record.