Golden Retriever automatically retrieves resources from the database for
actions/controllers that follow rest conventions.

Instructions:

script/plugin git://github.com/DouglasMeyer/golden_retriever.git
And add "require GoldenRetriever" to the controllers for which you want your
resources automatically retrieved, and the resoures will be loaded under their
names. You can also define "resource_find_method" to specify a different find
method (like :find_by_name).

Example:

ActionController::Routing::Routes.draw do |map|
  map.resources :users, :has_many => :posts
end

class PostsController < ApplicationController
  require GoldenRetriever
  # In this controller, you'll have access to @user, which is
  # the same as: User.find(params[:user_id])
  def index
    # @posts will be the same as @user.posts
    render :json => @posts
  end
  def show
    # @post will be the same as @user.posts.find(params[:id])
    render :json => @post
  end
  def new
    # @post will be the same as @user.posts.build
    render :json => @post
  end

private

  def resource_find_method(model_name)
    model_name == 'post' ? :find_by_name : :find
  end

end