Rails 4.1.8 link_to Delete, JavaScript not being applied

Question

I'm following the Getting started with Rails guide.

http://edgeguides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html

I'm having an issue when trying to use the link_to 'Delete' method to destroy an article. The server console shows that the DELETE is not being used and instead the GET method is being called instead, thus not following the route. In section 5.13 of the guide...

articles_controller.rb

  def destroy
    @article = Article.find(params[:id])
    @article.destroy

    redirect_to articles_path
  end

There are many similar questions with regards to this topic, yet I have not found the solution as to why this doesn't work. (I know button_to does work but there must be a reason why the guide refers to link_to)

I have checked my application.js file and ensured that jquery and jquery-ujs are included:

//= require jquery
//= require jquery_ujs
//= require turbolinks
//= require_tree

Console output:

Started GET "/articles" for 127.0.0.1 at 2016-02-05 15:27:43 +1000
Processing by ArticlesController#index as HTML
  Article Load (1.0ms)  SELECT "articles".* FROM "articles"
  Rendered articles/index.html.erb within layouts/application (4.9ms)
Completed 200 OK in 52ms (Views: 50.0ms | ActiveRecord: 1.0ms)

The layout file application.html.erb

  <%= stylesheet_link_tag 'application', media: 'all', 'data-turbolinks-track' => true %>
  <%= javascript_include_tag '**defaults**', 'data-turbolinks-track' => true %>
  <%= csrf_meta_tags %>

Using browser developer tools, it seems that the JS file is included correctly. I have also checked in different browsers and ensured that javascript is running on the browsers.

Here is the browser <head> section:

<head>
  <title>Blog</title>
  <link data-turbolinks-track="true" href="/assets/articles.css?body=1" media="all" rel="stylesheet">
<link data-turbolinks-track="true" href="/assets/welcome.css?body=1" media="all" rel="stylesheet">
<link data-turbolinks-track="true" href="/assets/application.css?body=1" media="all" rel="stylesheet">
  <script data-turbolinks-track="true" src="/javascripts/**defaults**.js">    </script>
  <meta content="authenticity_token" name="csrf-param">
<meta content="TwTtY9tuU/f7W5kWKkxNITD+KjuZ3zcTVD6b+8IkihA=" name="csrf-token">
</head>

I've tried changing the application.js file to the following as suggested here!

<html>
<head>
  <title>Blog</title>
  <%= stylesheet_link_tag    'application', media: 'all', 'data-turbolinks-track' => true %>
  <%= javascript_include_tag 'application', 'data-turbolinks-track' => true %>
  <%= csrf_meta_tags %>
</head>
<body>

<%= yield %>

</body>
</html>

Get the following error:

Is there anything else I can try to get link_to working as intended? I know that rails uses javascript for the link_to DELETE and the confirmation box and it's not being displayed.

edit: added view file where link_to is being used.

index.html.erb
      <td><%= link_to 'Show', article_path(article) %></td>
      <td><%= link_to 'Edit', edit_article_path(article) %></td>
      <td><%= link_to 'Destroy', article_path(article), method: :delete,
          data: { confirm: 'Are you sure?' } %></td>
    </tr>

Shani Shani · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-05T06:04:43

do you have method: :delete in your destroy link like following?

<%= link_to 'Destroy', article_path(article),
          method: :delete,
          data: { confirm: 'Are you sure?' } %>

you should use application.js instead of default

  <%= javascript_include_tag 'application', 'data-turbolinks-track' => true %>

I assume you are having the same problem with coffee script version on windows. please check following link to change and update coffee script gem.

Rails ExecJS::ProgramError in Pages#home?

gem 'coffee-script-source', '1.8.0'

bundle update coffee-script-source

Rails 4.1.8 link_to Delete, JavaScript not being applied

2 Answers