Rails - Create an object in database from nested params attributes - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have a rails application where the user creates a new job, and on the job/new _form i am having the user enter the information for the Company that the Job belongs too.
A job in the database is simply the Date it was created, the User who created it, and a additional foreign keys to tables like Company, Contact, Jobsite, etc.
A Company has_many jobs and a Job belongs_to a Company in my application.
So, before I can persist the Job into the database, I must first save the new Company so that I can then grab its primary key and put that in the Jobs company_id foreign key tuple.
I have everything coming back properly in the params hash like so:
>> params
=> {"utf8"=>"✓", "authenticity_token"=>"NiQO7Wlq87h3+YM//yIEMnctVKectfmZBb74suFOCcmg7g4YyCmGo2OiciOd3VuRDR52tKoE0v9nq1LYoTqHOQ==", "job"=>{"date"=>"2016-09-04 16:06:49 -0700", "user_id"=>"1", "company_id"=>"", "subcontractor_id"=>"", "jobsite_id"=>"", "companies"=>{"name"=>"Test Company", "phone"=>"[phone]", "street"=>"3177 testing st", "city"=>"cameron park", "state"=>"ca", "zip"=>"95682", "email"=>"testemail#mail.com", "website"=>"testcompany.com"}}, "commit"=>"Create Job", "controller"=>"jobs", "action"=>"create"}
>>
And i can access the company information with params[:job][:companies]
So my theory is, in the Jobs controller, in def create, before i call #job.save, I must first do a #company.new(company_params) and #company.save so that I can save the company and then grab its primary key from the database.
But I need a little help with this.
Does anyone have some tips to give?
Edit:
This is a sample from my _form,
<%= f.fields_for #company do |company| %>
<div class="field">
<%= company.label :name %>
<%= company.text_field :name %>
</div>
Inside the Job Controller I have,
def new
#job = Job.new
#company = Company.new
end
def create
#job = Job.new(job_params)
#company = Company.new(params[:job][:company])
Job.rb has
accepts_nested_attributes_for :company
And the params are:
def job_params
params.require(:job).permit(:date, :user_id, :company_id, :subcontractor_id, :jobsite_id, :company_attributes => [:name, :phone, :street, :city, :state, :zip, :email, :website])
end
When i submit my form, the attributes come back as company instead of company_attributes, so it is telling me "Unpermitted parameter: company".
The way i have it set up, #job has not function to do #job.company.build, they are not nested that way. Company is its own table and a company can have many jobs, and all a job can do is perform #job.company
Which is why i need to create the company first so i can get its primary key and then say #job.company_id = #company.id
I hope this makes things more clear.

Answer 1

You could use nested_attributes_for :company or companies, looking at your code and seeing company_id, I'm assuming it's company.
=>{
...
"job"=>{
"date"=>"2016-09-04 16:06:49 -0700",
"user_id"=>"1", # <= Really shouldn't do this...
"company_attributes"=>{
"name"=>"Test Company",
"phone"=>"[phone]",
"street"=>"3177 testing st",
"city"=>"cameron park",
"state"=>"ca", "zip"=>"95682",
"email"=>"testemail#mail.com",
"website"=>"testcompany.com"
}
},
...
}
Then in your permitted params you can do something like:
def job_params
params.require(:job).permit(:date, :company_id, :subcontractor_id, :company_attributes => [:name, :phone, :street, :city, :state, :email, :website])
end
You can then use fields_for :company in your form_tag. Also, add a blank company to the new job action.
def new
#job = Job.new
#job.build_company
end
EDIT
You can't use #company on feilds_for like this.
Perhaps fields_for :company, #company, but not just #company.
<%= f.fields_for :company do |company| %>
You have to use a symbol to represent the record's name.
Otherwise the fields name will be "job[company]" or in your case "job[companies]" instead of "job[company_attributes]".
And either way, you can just add the new objects to the new job's association instead of adding an instance variable.
#job.build_company
You can try it out yourself with this working repo: https://www.github.com/frank184/surveysays
And for reference:
http://apidock.com/rails/ActionView/Helpers/FormHelper/fields_for