routing - Rails 4.2+: deep nesting resources when it's required to display data from entire resource chain -

i'm familiar guideline not nest more 1 level deep, , understand various discussions having shortest urls possible both in , out of code.

most of stackoverflow questions , googling i've done answer presenting use cases 1 doesn't have access elements in entire chain.

but do when have access parent resources further chain every page you're working with?

/{account_slug}/applications/{application_uuid}/borrower/employments/{uuid}

when dealing single employment record, have display account-specific information take parent account object via account_slug, application information. , technically, borrower db query, since there 1 each application, don't have add id/slug in url.

general advice like:

/employments/{uuid}

but if that, in controller code (and elsewhere) still have do:

@employment = employment.find_by(uuid: params[:uuid]) @account = @employment.borrower.application.account 

so have walk entire parent association chain , execute association db queries. how 1 resolve kind of situation deep nested association has kept, first parent last child?

1: add association attributes children

class employment   belongs_to :borrower   belongs_to :application   belongs_to :account end 

now i've got bunch of associations going on everywhere, walk clear chain. seems "dependency hell" me?...

2: go deep nested routes; github it

i've noticed github employs deep nested routes:

github.com/{username}/{repo}/settings/hooks

while not deeply-nested use case, still nest underneath username , repo, , if list out verbose url is:

/github.com/accounts/{username}/repos/{repo_name}/settings/hooks

is aware if github has method of optimizing deep nesting, or looking account , repo every request , biting db query overhead (probably not big deal...)?

3: deep nest routes, make own url helpers keep clean

using /{acount_slug}/applications/{application_uuid}/borrower/employments/{uuid}, url helper like:

account_applications_borrower_employments_path(@account, @application, @borrower, @employment) 

this cleaned using helpers:

def borrower_employment_path(@employment)   @borrower = @employment.borrower   @application = @borrower.application   @account = @application.account   account_applications_borrower_employments_path(@account, @application, @borrower, @employment) end 

very detailed question. kinda late respond, in past when problem of nested resources has bitten me, ends need revisit way relationally modeled database.

of possible solutions suggested, number 1 best considering opinionated nature of rails framework. rails associations powerful , leveraging them useful app scales.

addressing concerns dependencies between models:

without seeing schema, can guess, modeling this:

class account   has_many :applications end  class application   belongs_to :account   has_one :borrower   has_one :employment end  class borrower   belongs_to :application end  class employment   belongs_to :application   has_one :account, through: :application end 

this best guess dissecting info above. modeling, able in controller action:

def action_name   @employment = employment.find_by(uuid: params[:uuid])   @account = @employment.account end 

you able add associations, say, if wanted do: @employment.borrower

by adding:

class employment   belongs_to :application   has_one :account, through: :application   has_one :borrower, through: :application end 

i give read every once , while keep fresh:

http://guides.rubyonrails.org/association_basics.html#the-types-of-associations

rails has discouraged heavily nested routing, despite github's implementation of application:

http://guides.rubyonrails.org/routing.html#nested-resources