When developing a Rails app, therequest/response cycleis a useful guide to see how all the app’s files and folders fit together. The request/response cycle traces how a user’s request flows through the app. Understanding the request/response cycle is helpful to figure out which files to edit when developing an app (and where to look when things aren’t working).

How it Works

• A user opens their browser, types in a URL, and presses Enter.
• When a user presses Enter, the browser makes a request for that URL.
• The request hits the Rails router (config/routes.rb). The router maps the URL to the correct controller and action to handle the request.
• The action receives the request and passes it on to the view.
• The view renders the page as HTML.
• The controller sends the HTML back to the browser. The page loads and the user sees it.

In this way, the request/response cycle is a useful way to see what a Rails app’s files and folders are for and how they fit together.

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