<p>So I finally got around to replacing the dummy text in the sidebar with real, working archive links, and it was stupidly easy. Check it out...</p>
<p>First, I added a helper method to take all published posts and group them by the month they were created.</p>
<pre name="code" class="ruby">def archives
@archives = Post.published.in_order.all.group_by { |t| t.created_at.beginning_of_month}
end
</pre>
<p>Then I used that helper method to display links for each month in which posts were created.</p>
<pre name="code" class="ruby"><ul>
<% archives.each do |month, posts| %>
<li><%= link_to(month.strftime('%B')+" (#{posts.size})", archive_path(:month => month.month, :year => month.year)) %></li>
<% end %>
</ul>
</pre>
<p>You probably noticed the <em>archive_path</em> named route that the links point to. Here's how I set it up.</p>
<pre name="code" class="ruby">map.archive '/posts/:year/:month', :controller => 'posts', :action => 'archive'
</pre>
<p>That route points to the archive action of the posts controller which merely retrieves the posts created within the specified month and renders the list view.</p>
<pre name="code" class="ruby">def archive
@posts = Post.published.in_order.from_month(Time.parse "#{params[:month]}/#{params[:year]}").paginate(:page => params[:page], :per_page => 5)
render :action => 'index'
end
</pre>
<p>The archive action uses a <em>from_month</em> named scope on the Post model to restrict the find to all posts created within a given month.</p>
<pre name="code" class="ruby">named_scope :from_month, lambda { |month| {:conditions => {:created_at => month..(month + 1.month)}} }
</pre>
<p>That's it. That's all it takes to set up simple archive links for your blog.</p>
2009-04-14T05:07:04Z
So I finally got around to replacing the dummy text in the sidebar with real, working archive links, and it was stupidly easy.? Check it out...
Fir
27
true
archive-links-quick-and-easy
Archive links, quick and easy
2009-05-04T14:14:18Z