Why does redirect_to(:back)
not work for you, why is it a no go?
redirect_to(:back)
works like a charm for me. It's just a short cut for
redirect_to(request.env['HTTP_REFERER'])
http://apidock.com/rails/ActionController/Base/redirect_to (pre Rails 3) or http://apidock.com/rails/ActionController/Redirecting/redirect_to (Rails 3)
Please note that redirect_to(:back)
is being deprecated in Rails 5. You can use
redirect_back(fallback_location: 'something')
instead (see http://blog.bigbinary.com/2016/02/29/rails-5-improves-redirect_to_back-with-redirect-back.html)