Rails 3 render action

Question

In the Rails 3 app I am working on, we allow users to "activate" an account (by typing in a coupon code) and then they type in their information and voila, their account is created.

I am running into a small issue that I am unclear how to solve without duplicating code (that doesn't seem eloquent).

Here is my current activations controller:

class ActivationsController < ApplicationController
  respond_to :html
  skip_before_filter :set_client, :only => [:welcome]

  def new
    @user = User.new
    @gc = get_group_code(params[:group_code])

    if @gc.nil? || @gc.group.school_info.blank?
      @countries = Country.all
      @school_types = SchoolType.all
      @states = State.all
    else
      @school_information = @gc.group.school_info
    end

    @user_type = UserType.find_by_type("Classroom Teacher")
  end

  def create
      @user = User.new(params[:user].except(:custom))

      if @user.save
        @group = Group.find(params[:group_id])
        @user.groups << @group
        @user.update_mail_chimp_sponsors
        UserMailer.welcome_email(@user, current_client).deliver
        sign_in @user
        redirect_to new_activation_welcome_path
      else
        render :new
      end
  end

  def welcome
    @user = current_user
  end

  private

    def get_group_code(code = "")
      group_code = GroupCode.find_by_code(code)

      unless group_code.nil?
        group_code.validate_code(current_client.name)
        group_code
      end
    end
end

The problem I am running into, is on line 31 (render :new). When there is an error with the form and the app renders the new method, instance variables from the new method are not available to the view. How can I solve this issue?

Answer 1

Render :new does exactly that: it renders the :new view. It does not execute the new method in the controller, so in what ever method you call render :new from you must set up the instance variables required by the :new template.

It you do not want to duplicate code, you could move the setup of the instance variables to a private method in the controller. Then you can call the private method from the new method, and whatever other method from which you render :new.