What is the difference between _url and _path while using the routes in rails

ruby-on-rails routes
MohamedSanaulla picture MohamedSanaulla · Feb 28, 2010 · Viewed 27.7k times · Source

When we define routes in routes.rb using the name like map.some_link.We can use the link in two ways- some_link_url, some_link_path.

  • What are the differences between the two?
  • Which is more secure to be used?

Answer

Petros picture Petros · Feb 28, 2010

I had the same question and I wrote a small post about this in my blog

The reason is summarized here (I found this on a forum):

*_path are for views because ahrefs are implicitly linked to the current URL. So it’d be a waste of bytes to repeat it over and over. In the controller, though, *_url is needed for redirect_to because the HTTP specification mandates that the Location: header in 3xx redirects is a complete URL.

Here is another explanation which says it depends on whether we need to use an absolute URI when linking to an SSL site from a non-SSL site, and vice versa.

What I have read so far, doesn't suggest that any of them is more secure than the other. It really comes down to what is the "proper" usage.

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