Dev.to Data Flow and Files Notes

dev_to_data_flow_and_files.md

Dev.to Data Flow and Files Notes

General

• The primary view template at app/views/layouts/application.html.erb loads:
  • app/assets/javascripts/application.js, which loads all JS files.
• Instant Click loads data in the background when users mouse over links, using:
  • app/assets/javascripts/base.js.erb - calls various initializers
  • app/assets/javascripts/initializePage.js.erb calls all initializers related to page data
  • app/assets/javascripts/initializers/initializeBaseUserData.js - involved in prepping data for home page

Home page

• config/routes.rb handles HTTP GET requests, and on line 415:
  • default '/' root URI routes to stories_controller#index, which is here:
    • app/controllers/stories_controller.rb, specifically the:
      • index action for main feed, which calls:
        • 'handle_base_index`, which renders:
          • articles/index view/template, which is located at:
            • app/views/articles/index.html.erb, which uses javascript_pack_tag to load Preact components:
              • app/javascript/packs/homePage.jsx, homePage component, which in turn imports:
                • app/javascript/packs/homePageFeed.jsx which renders the articles.
            • app/views/articles/index.html.erb also renders these partials:
              • app/views/articles/_sidebar.html.erb, which in turn renders:
                • app/views/articles/_sidebar_nav.html.erb, which contains the area we want to link to Collections.

Article Show Page

• config/routes.rb handles HTTP GET request, and on line 403:
  • get "/:username/:slug/:view" => "stories#show" routes to:
    • app/controllers/stories_controller.rb, specifically the:
      • show action, which calls:
        • handle_article_show, which renders:
          • app/views/articles/show.html.erb, which has bulk of content and also renders:
            • app/views/articles/_actions.html.erb, which has the social media buttons.
        • the show action also declares an @article instance variable (passed to show.html.erb) which:
          • runs an ActiveRecord query against the Article model (app/models/article.rb):
            • Article.find_by(path: "/#{params[:username].downcase}/#{params[:slug]}")
              • it then calls .decorate on the found article object, which gives it methods from:
                • app/decorators/article_decorator.rb, a "Decorator" file using the Draper gem/library.