Rails 5 - has_many through and nested attributes forms - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have two models Request and TableLocation with both having a has_many through relationship joined by RequestLocation table.
I am trying to create a nested form and the table_location data is not being saved to the database.
As you can see the table_locations"=>["1"] parameter is being passed to the create action but not being saved.
Appreciate any help.
Console Output
Started POST "/requests" for 127.0.0.1 at 2017-06-07 10:35:26 -0400
Processing by RequestsController#create as HTML
Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", "authenticity_token"=>"mHV/xbmdfHmCAsi16KXlW+0bWVSkEo9SRVchdyPpL60o3m3SuKEt4nuUT4PJNEyCsWq3Nj4IWiCMlDbhiPewdA==", "request"=>{"concierge_name"=>"Alex", "concierge_number"=>"954-123-4567", "concierge_email"=>"alex#email.com", "client_name"=>"Adam", "client_number"=>"954-765-4321", "client_email"=>"adam#email.com", "hotel_employee"=>"0", "concierge_service"=>"0", "vip_promoter"=>"0", "arriving_with_client"=>"1", "client_alone"=>"0", "males"=>"", "females"=>"1", "table_minimum"=>"1000", "arrival_time(1i)"=>"2017", "arrival_time(2i)"=>"6", "arrival_time(3i)"=>"7", "arrival_time(4i)"=>"14", "arrival_time(5i)"=>"35", "table_locations"=>["1"], "comments"=>""}, "commit"=>"Submit"}
(0.1ms) BEGIN
SQL (0.4ms) INSERT INTO "requests" ("concierge_name", "concierge_number", "concierge_email", "client_name", "client_number", "client_email", "arriving_with_client", "people", "females", "table_minimum", "arrival_time", "comments", "created_at", "updated_at") VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7, $8, $9, $10, $11, $12, $13, $14) RETURNING "id" [["concierge_name", "Alex"], ["concierge_number", "954-123-4567"], ["concierge_email", "alex#email.com"], ["client_name", "Adam"], ["client_number", "954-765-4321"], ["client_email", "adam#email.com"], ["arriving_with_client", "t"], ["people", 1], ["females", 1], ["table_minimum", 1000], ["arrival_time", "2017-06-07 14:35:00"], ["comments", ""], ["created_at", "2017-06-07 14:35:26.658718"], ["updated_at", "2017-06-07 14:35:26.658718"]]
(0.3ms) COMMIT
Redirected to http://localhost:3000/thanks
Completed 302 Found in 8ms (ActiveRecord: 0.8ms)
app/models/request.rb
class Request < ApplicationRecord
has_many :request_locations
has_many :table_locations, through: :request_locations
end
app/models/table_locations.rb
class TableLocation < ApplicationRecord
has_many :request_locations
has_many :requests, through: :request_locations
end
app/models/request_location.rb
class RequestLocation < ApplicationRecord
belongs_to :request
belongs_to :table_location
end
app/controllers/requests_controller.rb
class RequestsController < ApplicationController
before_action :set_request, only: [:show,
:edit,
:update,
:destroy]
before_action :authenticate_admin!, except: [:index,
:new,
:create]
def index
redirect_to root_path unless admin_signed_in?
#requests = Request.search(params[:term], params[:filter], params[:page])
end
def show
end
def new
#request = Request.new
end
def edit
end
def create
#request = Request.new(request_params)
#request.people = (#request.males || 0) + (#request.females || 0)
respond_to do |format|
if #request.save
format.html { redirect_to thanks_path, notice: 'Request was successfully created.' }
format.json { render :show, status: :created, location: #request }
else
format.html { render :new }
format.json { render json: #request.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
def update
respond_to do |format|
if #request.update(request_params)
format.html { redirect_to #request, notice: 'Request was successfully updated.' }
format.json { render :show, status: :ok, location: #request }
else
format.html { render :edit }
format.json { render json: #request.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
def destroy
#request.destroy
respond_to do |format|
format.html { redirect_to requests_url, notice: 'Request was successfully destroyed.' }
format.json { head :no_content }
end
end
private
def set_request
#request = Request.find(params[:id])
end
def request_params
params.require(:request).permit(:concierge_name,
:concierge_number,
:concierge_email,
:client_name,
:client_number,
:client_email,
:hotel_employee,
:concierge_service,
:vip_promoter,
:arriving_with_client,
:client_alone,
:people,
:males,
:females,
:table_minimum,
:arrival_time,
:comments,
table_locations: [:id]
)
end
end
app/views/requests/_form.html.erb
...
<% TableLocation.all.each do |t| %>
<%= check_box_tag "request[table_locations][]", t.id, #request.table_locations.include?(t.id) %>
<%= t.location %>
<br />
<% end %>
...

Answer 1

Explanations:
Your request_params permits table_locations: [:id], but this only permits the following format:
Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", ... "request"=>{"table_locations"=>{"id"=>"1"}, "comments"=>""}, "commit"=>"Submit"}
but yours is showing to be:
Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", ... "request"=>{"table_locations"=>["1"], "comments"=>""}, "commit"=>"Submit"}
therefore, try this: puts request_params inside the create method, and you'll notice that it doesn't have table_locations values (even though you thought it's there, but it's not), because it is not "properly" whitelisted in your strong params request_params.
To be able to associate multiple TableLocations objects to a newly built Request object, the format should be something like below
request = Request.new(table_location_ids: [1,2,3,4,5])
but from your implementation, you're doing it like this (which won't work):
request = Request.new(table_locations: [1,2,3,4,5])
# => this will raise an error:
# ActiveRecord::AssociationTypeMismatch: TableLocation expected, got Fixnum
# however yours didn't raise an error, because it was not whitelisted in the request_params in the first place
Solution:
requests_controller.rb
def request_params
params.require(:request).permit(..., table_location_ids: [])
end
_form.html.erb
<% TableLocation.all.each do |t| %>
<%= check_box_tag "request[table_location_ids][]", t.id %>
<%= t.location %>
<br />
<% end %>
Recommendation:
just in case you don't know yet that you can do the following in this way, I'll be refactoring your code to look something like this:
requests_controller.rb
def create
#table_locations = TableLocation.all
end
_form.html.erb
<%= form_for #request do |f| %>
<% #table_locations.each do |table_location| %>
<%= f.check_box :table_location_ids, multiple: true, table_location.id %>
<% end %>
<% end %>