Can Rails Routing Helpers (i.e. mymodel_path(model)) be Used in Models?

In Rails 3 and higher:

Rails.application.routes.url_helpers

e.g.

Rails.application.routes.url_helpers.posts_path
Rails.application.routes.url_helpers.posts_url(:host => "example.com")

I've found the answer regarding how to do this myself. Inside the model code, just put:

For Rails <= 2:

include ActionController::UrlWriter

For Rails 3:

include Rails.application.routes.url_helpers

This magically makes thing_path(self) return the URL for the current thing, or other_model_path(self.association_to_other_model) return some other URL.

You may also find the following approach cleaner than including every method:

class Thing
  delegate :url_helpers, to: 'Rails.application.routes' 

  def url
    url_helpers.thing_path(self)
  end
end

Any logic having to do with what is displayed in the view should be delegated to a helper method, as methods in the model are strictly for handling data.

Here is what you could do:

# In the helper...

def link_to_thing(text, thing)
  (thing.url?) ? link_to(text, thing_path(thing)) : link_to(text, thing.url)
end

# In the view...

<%= link_to_thing("text", @thing) %>

I really like following clean solution.

class Router
  include Rails.application.routes.url_helpers

  def self.default_url_options
    ActionMailer::Base.default_url_options
  end
end

router = Router.new
router.posts_url  # http://localhost:3000/posts
router.posts_path # /posts

It's from http://hawkins.io/2012/03/generating_urls_whenever_and_wherever_you_want/

While there might be a way I would tend to keep that kind of logic out of the Model. I agree that you shouldn't put that in the view (keep it skinny) but unless the model is returning a url as a piece of data to the controller, the routing stuff should be in the controller.

(Edit: Forget my previous babble...)

Ok, there might be situations where you would go either to the model or to some other url... But I don't really think this belongs in the model, the view (or maybe the model) sounds more apropriate.

About the routes, as far as I know the routes is for the actions in controllers (wich usually "magically" uses a view), not directly to views. The controller should handle all requests, the view should present the results and the model should handle the data and serve it to the view or controller. I've heard a lot of people here talking about routes to models (to the point I'm allmost starting to beleave it), but as I understand it: routes goes to controllers. Of course a lot of controllers are controllers for one model and is often called <modelname>sController (e.g. "UsersController" is the controller of the model "User").

If you find yourself writing nasty amounts of logic in a view, try to move the logic somewhere more appropriate; request and internal communication logic probably belongs in the controller, data related logic may be placed in the model (but not display logic, which includes link tags etc.) and logic that is purely display related would be placed in a helper.