Use POST or GET Request From Static URLs in Template in Rails

Please bear with me, as I'm new to programming in Rails and in general. I have a very limited understanding of how the models, views, controllers function but I've been learning as fast as I can.

I am having trouble with how I can generate semi-static intermediate pages based off the data I already have. Right now it's just a zip code search, a page with a list of results and a shop page. I want it structured by State-city-list-shop

In my database are shop locations that have been geocoded and made accessible on the client side via zip code search. So I'm dealing with a Shops controller that has the usual scaffold type setup so a url looks like /shops/1 for the show view. What I would like is shops/alaska/anchorage/the-name-of-the-shop with breadcrumbs.

I don't have a "States" or "Cities" controller which is how I would assume you'd have to do it in order to get the routes built.

I made static State template pages, and for each State I list the cities with the links looking like City. I have an index.html file in each of the State folders but there's nothing in /shop/state/city

I did it like that because I can get results from this:

/shops/find_shops?=zip=City&Distance=5

Which if I could get the same result for /state/city/shops I'd be happy.

Because then I could click one of the shops in that list and it would take me to the shops page which is /shops/7499 (:id) and it would be better to have /state/city/shop-name

Here's the Shop controller - the admin is simply protecting the public from editing the shop address info. As you'll see it's taking a csv file, parsing and saving to the database.

    def admin_index
    #@shops = Shop.find(:all)

    @shops = Shop.paginate( :per_page => 35, 
                   :page => params[:page])

    @shops_to_geocode = Shop.fetch_not_geocoded
  end

  def geocode_shops
    @shops_to_geocode = Shop.fetch_not_geocoded
    cnt = 0
    for shop in @shops_to_geocode
      shop.geocode_raw_address
      shop.save!
    end
    redirect_to :action => 'admin_index'
  end

  def upload_file
    file_path = params[:file_path]
    if file_path
      Shop.import( file_path )
    end
    redirect_to :action => 'admin_index' 
  end

  # GET /shops
  # GET /shops.xml
  def index
    @zip = params[:zip]
    @distance = params[:distance]

    if @zip && @distance 
      @shops = Shop.find(:all, :origin => @zip, :conditions => ["distance < ?", @distance])
      logger.debug( "found #{@shops.length} shops" )

      if @shops.length == 0
        geo = GeoKit::Geocoders::MultiGeocoder.geocode( @zip )
        errors.add(:address, "Could not Geocode address") if !geo.success
        @centerLat, @centerLng = geo.lat,geo.lng if geo.success
      else
        @centerLat = @shops[0].lat
        @centerLng = @shops[0].lng
      end
    else
      @shops = []

      geo = GeoKit::Geocoders::IpGeocoder.geocode(request.remote_ip)
      if geo.success
        @centerLat, @centerLng = geo.lat,geo.lng 
      else
        logger.debug( "unable to geocode remote ip" )
        @centerLat = 42 
        @centerLng = -120 
      end
    end

    if @distance.nil?
      @distance = 5
    end

And Here's the Shop.rb

require 'net/http'

class Shop < ActiveRecord::Base

  acts_as_mappable

  DATA_FILE_COLS =
    [
      "---",
      "Site",
      "Zip Search",
      "Shop",
      "Address",
      "Phone",
      "Make",
      "Affiliations",
      "Specialties",
      "Amenities",
      "Timestap",
    ]

  FIELDS = 
    {
      "---" => "-1",
      "Site" => "-1",
      "Zip Search" => "-1",
      "Shop" => "name",
      "Address" => "raw_address",
      "Phone" => "phone_number",
      "Make" => "make",
      "Affiliations" => "affiliations",
      "Specialties" => "specialties",
      "Amenities" =开发者_StackOverflow> "amenities",
      "Timestap" => "-1"
    }


  def full_address
    "#{address_1} #{city} #{state} #{postal_code}"
  end

  def valid_for_geocoding?
    rtn = true 
    if self.full_address.nil? || self.full_address.to_s.empty? 
       rtn = false 
    end

    return rtn 
  end

  def geocode_address
    geo = GeoKit::Geocoders::MultiGeocoder.geocode( full_address )
    errors.add(:address, "Could not Geocode address") if !geo.success
    self.lat, self.lng = geo.lat,geo.lng if geo.success
  end

  def geocode_raw_address
        geo = GeoKit::Geocoders::MultiGeocoder.geocode(self.raw_address)
        if ( geo.success )
          self.address_1 = geo.street_address
          self.city = geo.city
          self.state = geo.state
          self.postal_code = geo.zip
          self.lat = geo.lat
          self.lng = geo.lng
        end
  end

  def self.import( file_path )
    url = 'http://example.com'
    #file = '/filename.txt'
    file = file_path


    response = Net::HTTP.get_response(URI.parse(url + file))
    body = response.body
    lines = body.split("\r\n")

    line_cnt = 0

    lines.each { |line| 
      if line_cnt > 1
        words = line.split("\"")
        cnt = 0
        shop_atrbs = Hash.new
        words.each { |word|
          if word != ","
            #puts "#{fields[cnt]} : #{word.strip}"
            field = FIELDS[DATA_FILE_COLS[cnt]]
            if field != "-1"
              shop_atrbs[field] = word.strip
            end
            cnt = cnt + 1
          end
        }
        shop = Shop.new
        shop.update_attributes(shop_atrbs)
        geo = GeoKit::Geocoders::MultiGeocoder.geocode(shop.raw_address)
        shop.address_1 = geo.street_address
        shop.city = geo.city
        shop.state = geo.state
        shop.postal_code = geo.zip
        shop.lat = geo.lat
        shop.lng = geo.lng
        shop.save

      end
      line_cnt = line_cnt + 1
    }    #f.each{ |line| puts '#{f.lineno}: #{line}' }
  end

  def self.fetch_not_geocoded
    find( :all,
    :conditions => ['lat IS NULL || lng IS NULL || lat = ? || lng = ?', "", ""],
    :limit => 10000)
  end

  def self.find_for_sitemap(offset, limit)
    find( :all, 
          :select => 'id, name, updated_at',
          :order => 'updated_at DESC',
          :offset => offset,
          :limit => limit )
  end

end

So, what I want to have work is - /Alaska/Anchorage/Shops-List/ (clean URL)

What I can do right now is - /find_shops?zip=anchorage&distance=5

Lastly, this is rails 2.3.2 and I've spent so much time trying to get it converted to rails 3.0 but haven't had success with that yet.

Have you read the Rails Routing guide "Rails Routing from the Outside In"? In particular section 4 covers how you might achieve this.