adding and accessing controllers in ruby on rails

Question

If I have a controller, how do I access it via URL with newly added methods?

Reason I am confused is because I have a route,

map.connect 'assignments/:external_id.:format', :controller => "assignments", :action => "show", :external_id => /\d{6}/

It seems that I can't access any other method within the assignments controller because if i do

mysite.com/assignments/other_method

It'll assume that other_method is an ID I'm passing into the show controller, as specified in the route entry above.

Edit:

I added this to the top:

map.connect 'assignments/send/', :controller => "assignments", :action => "send"

and am now getting this error:

ArgumentError in AssignmentsController#show 

The route for assignments/send is the first declration for any of the assignments controller

Answer 1

Your routing table should have it in this order

map.connect 'assignments/:external_id.:format', :controller => "assignments", :action => "show", :external_id => /\d{6}/

map.connect 'assignments/send/', :controller => "assignments", :action => "send"

to end with

  map.connect ':controller/:action/:id'
  map.connect ':controller/:action/:id.:format'

as your most general case.

Answer 2

Just specify the right route pattern for that second case and make sure you keep in mind that the mappings are evaluated from top to bottom (first match gets executed).