mvc with no state?

[dmatrix00d]

Hi,

I'm new to ruby and rails as well.

From what I've read, models are used as gatekeepers to data and

interact with the data. Controllers perform all the rest of the logic.
Views provide the output to the browser. Am I interpreting this
correctly?

If so, how would I structure a program that pretty much accepts a
string query in the form "command arg1 arg2 arg3 ...." as a form from
the browser, and then read from an interface file in the form of:

command, file location.

It will then use that file location to spot the program to use, and
call that file location with those arguments. That file location
program will perform some side effect and return to the ruby on rails
application a string which will be placed in the right side of the same
page (using AJAX).

So my question is, will I need models for this or can I do everything
in controllers? Also, is this the best way of doing what I want to do?

Thanks