How do i store multiple values from a checkbox form to the database? I have scoured through various threads and still have not come up with anything. Mainly because the "problems" always seem to involve different parts.
For the sake of clarity here's an example to mimic what i am trying to do and im not sure which part of it is wrong.
So say we have this table created for our Person
#schema.rb
create_table "persons", force: :cascade do |t|
t.string "hobby", default: [], array: true
end
And in the model
#person.rb
serialize :hobby
So if say i had a form with checkboxes to let the user pick his favourite hobbies. And for example because this list of hobbies is really long, i stored the values in a module.
#app/models/concerns/hobby_data.rb
module HobbyData
Activities = [
item_one,
item_two,
...
]
end
In the controller, im permitting an array
params.require(:person).permit({:hobby => []})
And in my form
#form for new/edit person
<% form_for #person do |f| %>
#other fields
<% HobbyData::Activities.each do |activity| %>
<%= check_box_tag("hobby[]", activity) %>
<%= activity %> #for the activity name
<% end %>
I can now see the values being passed in from the logs
hobby => ["item_one", "item_two"]
But its not hitting the database, any idea why?
I think the problem is in your form. Since you are using check_box_tag, you must explicitly declare the scope where the hobby[] attribute belongs to. So your form should be like this:
<% form_for #person do |f| %>
<% HobbyData::Activities.each do |activity| %>
<%= check_box_tag("person[hobby][]", activity) %> <-- notice this change
<%= activity %> #for the activity name
<% end %>
<% end %>
On another note, there's also a form helper for this so you can do it like this...
<% form_for #person do |f| %>
<% HobbyData::Activities.each do |activity| %>
<%= f.check_box :hobby, { multiple: true }, activity, nil %>
<% end %>
<% end %>
More here: http://apidock.com/rails/ActionView/Helpers/FormHelper/check_box
From the official rails documentation
fields_for(record_name, record_object = nil, options = {}, &block)
Creates a scope around a specific model object like form_for, but
doesn’t create the form tags themselves. This makes fields_for
suitable for specifying additional model objects in the same form.
Related
There is 'FoodType' model which are describes types of food in restaurants. I need to make view for creating a new restaurant, and I need to have list of checkboxes in order to allow user to setup types of food for each restaurant. I want to have something like this:
<% FoodType.all.each do |food_type| %>
...
<div class="row">
<%= f.check_box :food_types[0] %>
</div>
...
<% end %>
I want to have parameters like params[restaurant][food_types][0] = true in order to make some actions after creating. Please, tell me, how can I do it? Thanks in advance.
Presumably you have a join table which joins restaurants and food types? Let's say that you have one called restaurant_food_types (with a model RestaurantFoodType), which has restaurant_id and food_type_id?
You will then have this association in restaurants:
Restaurant < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :restaurant_food_types
has_many :food_types, :through => :restaurant_food_types
This will give you the method .food_type_ids which you can call on a restaurant to set the joins. It's this method that you should hook into in your form: it expects an array of ids, so you need to set up an array-style parameter (one where the name ends in []) You may need to use check_box_tag rather than .check_box, to access an array-style parameter name: i would do this:
<% form_for #restaurant do |f| %>
<% FoodType.all.each do |food_type| %>
...
<div class="row">
<%= check_box_tag "restaurant[food_type_ids][]", food_type.id, #restaurant.food_type_ids.include?(food_type.id) %><%= food_type.name %>
</div>
...
<% end %>
<%= f.submit "Save" %>
<% end %>
Like i say i'm using a check_box_tag here but there might be a nicer way to hook into the food_type_ids method.
How do i get checkbox values in the form from the database? I want the form to bring the existing sub category name,and when i check the checkbox to select that particular category name and not create a new one.I have tried ryan bate's railscast but was no help to me. The realationship here is Category has_many SubCategories and SubCategory belongs_to Category.Thank you.
<%= form_for #category ,:url=>{:action =>"create"} do |f| %>
<%=f.text_field :category_name %>
<%= f.fields_for :sub_categories do |s| %>
<% #category.sub_categories.each do |sub|%>
<%=s.check_box "name",{},sub.id %> <!--need help here-->
<%end%>
<%end%>
<%=f.submit "submit"%>
<%end%>
Based on the exchange in the comments, it appears that you want to use the checkboxes to assign SubCategory objects to a Category object. If that's the case, you're association should be that a Category has_and_belongs_to_many :sub_categories. Then your form would look something like:
<%= form_for #category ,:url=>{:action =>"create"} do |f| %>
<%=f.text_field :category_name %>
<% SubCategories.each do |sc| %>
<div>
<%= check_box_tag :sub_category_ids, sub_category_id, #category.sub_categories.include?(sc), :name => 'category[sub_category_ids][]' -%>
<%= label_tag :sub_category_ids, sc.name -%>
</div>
<% end -%>
<% end %>
Which will show a category form and then list all of the sub_categories that can be assigned or unassigned by checking the checkboxes.
You will also need a join table "categories_sub_categories" for this new association and logic (likely in your controller) to handle the actual assignment.
example for your category_controller.rb
def create
#category = Category.find(params[:id])
#use the checked sub_category_ids from the form to find and assign the sub_categories.
assigned_sub_categories = SubCategory.find(params[:category][:sub_category_ids]) rescue []
#category.sub_categories = assigned_sub_categories
if #category.save
…
else
…
end
end
I have a subject model with two fields - "name" and "level". I want to be able to visit "/subjects#new" and add 10 subjects objects at once. How can I do this in formtastic.
In regular forms I would do this:
<% #subjects.each do |s| %>
<% fields_for "subject[#{s.id}]", s do |f|%>
<%= f.name%>
<%= f.level %>
<% end %>
<% end %>
Change fields_for to semantic_fields_for for and it should work.
I have a Campaign model which has_many Calls, Emails, and Letters.
For now, these are each a separate Model with different controllers and actions (although I would like to start to think of ways to collapse them once the models and actions stabilize).
They do share two attributes at least: :days and :title
I would like a way to represent all the Calls, Emails, and Letters that belong_to a specific Campaign as a sortable collection (sortable by :days), in a way that outputs the model name and the path_to() for each.
For example (I know the below is not correct, but it represents the kind of output/format I've been trying to do:
#campaign_events.each do |campaign_event|
<%= campaign_event.model_name %>
<%= link_to campaign_event.title, #{model_name}_path(campaign_event) %>
end
Thanks so much. BTW, if this matters, I would then want to make the :days attribute editable_in_place.
Here is what I've got working, but want some additional insights
module CampaignsHelper
def campaign_events
return (#campaign.calls + #campaign.emails + #campaign.letters).sort{|a,b| a.days <=> b.days}
end
end
In the VIEW:
<% #campaign_events = campaign_events %>
<% #campaign_events.each do |campaign_event| %>
<% model_name = campaign_event.class.name.tableize.singularize %>
<p>
<%= link_to campaign_event.title, send("#{model_name}_path", campaign_event) %>
<%= campaign_event.days %>
</p>
<% end %>
Like this?
# controller
#campaign = Campaign.find(params[:id])
#campaign_events = (#campaign.calls + #campaign.emails + #campaign.letters).sort{|a,b| a.days <=> b.days}
# view
#campaign_events.each do |campaign_event|
<%= campaign_event.model_name %>
<%= link_to campaign_event.title, #{model_name}_path(campaign_event) %>
end
In controller you find all campaign events and sort it by days field
I want to edit multiple items of my model photo in one form. I am unsure of how to correctly present and POST this with a form, as well as how to gather the items in the update action in the controller.
This is what I want:
<form>
<input name="photos[1][title]" value="Photo with id 1" />
<input name="photos[2][title]" value="Photo with id 2" />
<input name="photos[3][title]" value="Custom title" />
</form>
The parameters are just an example, like I stated above: I am not sure of the best way to POST these values in this form.
In the controller I want to something like this:
#photos = Photo.find( params[photos] )
#photos.each do |photo|
photo.update_attributes!(params[:photos][photo] )
end
In Rails 4, just this
<%= form_tag photos_update_path do %>
<% #photos.each do |photo| %>
<%= fields_for "photos[]", photo do |pf| %>
<%= pf.text_field :caption %>
... other photo fields
UPDATE: This answer applies to Rails 2, or if you have special constraints that require custom logic. The easy cases are well addressed using fields_for as discussed elsewhere.
Rails isn't going to help you out a lot to do this. It goes against the standard view conventions, so you'll have to do workarounds in the view, the controller, even the routes. That's no fun.
The key resources on dealing with multi-model forms the Rails way are Stephen Chu's params-foo series, or if you're on Rails 2.3, check out Nested Object Forms
It becomes much easier if you define some kind of singular resource that you are editing, like a Photoset. A Photoset could be a real, ActiveRecord type of model or it can just be a facade that accepts data and throws errors as if it were an ActiveRecord model.
Now you can write a view form somewhat like this:
<%= form_for :photoset do |f|%>
<% f.object.photos.each do |photo| %>
<%= f.fields_for photo do |photo_form| %>
<%= photo_form.text_field :caption %>
<%= photo_form.label :caption %>
<%= photo_form.file_field :attached %>
<% end %>
<% end %>
<% end %>
Your model should validate each child Photo that comes in and aggregate their errors. You may want to check out a good article on how to include Validations in any class. It could look something like this:
class Photoset
include ActiveRecord::Validations
attr_accessor :photos
validate :all_photos_okay
def all_photos_okay
photos.each do |photo|
errors.add photo.errors unless photo.valid?
end
end
def save
photos.all?(&:save)
end
def photos=(incoming_data)
incoming_data.each do |incoming|
if incoming.respond_to? :attributes
#photos << incoming unless #photos.include? incoming
else
if incoming[:id]
target = #photos.select { |t| t.id == incoming[:id] }
end
if target
target.attributes = incoming
else
#photos << Photo.new incoming
end
end
end
end
def photos
# your photo-find logic here
#photos || Photo.find :all
end
end
By using a facade model for the Photoset, you can keep your controller and view logic simple and straightforward, reserving the most complex code for a dedicated model. This code probably won't run out of the box, but hopefully it will give you some ideas and point you in the right direction to resolve your question.
Rails does have a way to do this - I don't know when it was introduced, but it's basically described here: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/form_helpers.html#using-form-helpers
It took a bit of fiddling to alter the configuration properly for the case where there's no parent object, but this seems to be correct (it's basically the same as gamov's answer, but cleaner and doesn't allow for "new" records mixed in with the "update" records):
<%= form_tag photos_update_path do %>
<% #photos.each do |photo| %>
<%= fields_for "photos[#{photo.id}]", photo do |pf| %>
<%= pf.text_field :caption %>
... [other fields]
<% end %>
<% end %>
<% end %>
In your controller, you'll end up with a hash in params[:photos], where the keys are photo IDs, and the values are attribute hashes.
You can use "model name[]" syntax to represent multiple objects.
In view, use "photo[]" as a model name.
<% form_for "photo[]", :url => photos_update_path do |f| %>
<% for #photo in #photos %>
<%= render :partial => "photo_form", :locals => {f => f} %>
<%= submit_tag "Save"%>
<% end %>
<% end %>
This will populate input fields just like you described.
In your controller, you can do bulk updates.
def update
Photo.update(params[:photo].keys, params[:photo].values)
...
end
Indeed, as Turadg mentioned, Rack (Rails 3.0.5) fails if you mix new & existing records in Glen's answer.
You can work around this by making fields_for work manually:
<%= form_tag photos_update_path do %>
<% #photos.each_with_index do |photo,i| %>
<%= fields_for 'photos[#{i}]', photo do |pf| %>
<%= pf.hidden_field :id %>
... [other photo fields]
<% end %>
<% end %>
This is pretty ugly if you ask me, but it's the only way I found to edit multiple records while mixing new and existing records.
The trick here is that instead of having an array of records, the params hash gets a array of hashes (numbered with i, 0,1,2, etc) AND the id in the record hash. Rails will update the existing records accordingly and create the new ones.
One more note: You still need to process the new and existing records in the controller separately (check if :id.present?)