simple_form association doesn't save belongs_to id - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have a recipient and category model. It's a simple association of 1 category has many recipients. When I try to update the recipient form and assign a category, it won't save to the record. If I use the console and update a record manually, e.g. Recipient.update(9, category_id: 13), I see the correct category assigned to the recipient but when I try to edit/update the record, it won't save to the new chosen category.
Here is my recipient model
class Recipient < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :category
accepts_nested_attributes_for :category
end
Here is my category model
class Category < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :recipients
validates :category, presence: true
default_scope { order('category')}
end
here is the recipient controller
class RecipientsController < ApplicationController
def index
#recipients = Recipient.order(:recipient_name).page(params[:page])
end
def new
#recipient = Recipient.new
end
def show
#recipient = Recipient.find(params[:id])
end
def create
#recipient = Recipient.new(recipient_params)
if #recipient.save
redirect_to recipients_path
else
render :new
end
end
def edit
#recipient = Recipient.find(params[:id])
end
def update
#recipient = Recipient.find(params[:id])
recipient_params = params.require(:recipient).permit(:recipient_name, :alternate_name, :description, :city, :state, :country, category_attributes: [:category, :id])
#recipient.update_attributes(recipient_params)
redirect_to recipient_path(id: #recipient.id)
end
def destroy
#recipient = Recipient.find(params[:id])
#recipient.destroy
redirect_to recipients_path
end
private
def recipient_params
params.require(:recipient).permit(:recipient_name, :alternate_name, :description, :city, :state, :country, product_attributes: [:product_name, recipient_products: [:recipient_id, :product_id]], channel_attributes: [:channel_name, recipient_channels: [:recipient_id, :channel_id]], category_attributes: [:id, :category])
end
end
here is the edit view
<div class="row">
<div class="col-sm-6">
<h2>Edit <%= #recipient.recipient_name %></h2>
<%= simple_form_for #recipient do |form| %>
<%= form.error_notification %>
<%= form.input :recipient_name, placeholder: 'Recipient', label: 'Recipient Name' %>
<%= form.input :alternate_name, placeholder: 'Alternate Name' %>
<%= form.association :category, label_method: :category, value_method: :id %>
<%= form.input :description, placeholder: 'Description'%>
<%= form.input :city, placeholder: 'City'%>
<%= form.input :state, placeholder: 'State' %>
<%= form.input :country, as: :country, priority: ['US', 'CA'] %>
<%= form.button :submit, 'Update Recipient', {:class=>"btn btn-secondary"} %>
<%= link_to "Cancel", :back, {:class=>"btn btn-default"} %>
<% end %>
</div>
</div>
and here is my routes.rb file
Rails.application.routes.draw do
root to: 'home#index'
resources :media_points
resources :products
resources :channels
resources :recipients
resources :media_point_products
resources :distributions
resources :categories do
resources :recipients
end
get '/listing' => "listing#index"
devise_for :admins
devise_for :users
resources :users
end

Answer 1

I wrote it as an answer since the format is a pain in comments:
Change your recipient_params private method from:
category_attributes: [:category, :id]
to
category_id: param_that_has_category_id_here
Also, you have two routes for recipients and it is going to utilize the first matching route which is not the nested recipients in categories route you have further down. If the first change in your private method didn't fix it I would specify the nested situation in simpleform doing as follows since you are probably looking to use the nested route:
simple_form_for [#category, #recipient], url: 'nested_route_path_here' do |f|
Just add #category = Category.new to your new action in the recipients controller and then in your create action you'll have the category param sent via params[:category_id]