Rails collection select only saving part of the attributes - ruby-on-rails

Question

I am trying to understand how to do a simple thing - save both an id and the text from a collection_select.
I am just beginning work with RoR so I don't have a good grasp on everything yet.
I have experience mostly in Java plus some Perl, so perhaps I did not choose the correct way.
I have a Defect which has a DefectRootCause.
There is another entity, DefaultRootCauses from which I can choose the DefectRootCause.root_cause to associate with a Defect.
I am trying to save the Defect with its DefectRootCause. The DefectRootCause should have the root_cause field as text, the values chosen from the DefaultRootCause.
The problem is that I am only getting to save one of the root_cause or default_root_cause_id for the DefectRootCause.
More, the DefectRootCause.root_cause gets the id form the DefaultRootCause instead of the text.
Please let me know if I am right in trying to get everything to happen "magically" or if I should do some processing of the data in a controller.
See below for the code.
I have the models:
class Defect < ActiveRecord::Base
has_one :defect_root_cause, :dependent => :destroy
has_many :default_root_cause, :through => :defect_root_cause
end
class DefectRootCause < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :defect
belongs_to :default_root_cause
end
class DefaultRootCause < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :defect_root_causes
has_many :defects, :through => :defect_root_causes
end
Controller (I only need changes to one of them for this I think):
# POST /defects
# POST /defects.json
def create
#I am doing this because the attributes are not named :defect_root_cause_attribues, I don't know yet why
#defect = Defect.new(defect_params.except(:defect_root_cause))
#defect.defect_root_cause = DefectRootCause.new(defect_params[:defect_root_cause])
respond_to do |format|
if #defect.save
format.html { redirect_to #defect, notice: 'Defect was successfully created.' }
format.json { render :show, status: :created, location: #defect }
else
format.html { render :new }
format.json { render json: #defect.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
# PATCH/PUT /defects/1
# PATCH/PUT /defects/1.json
def update
respond_to do |format|
#I am doing this because the attributes are not named :defect_root_cause_attribues, I don't know yet why
if #defect.update(defect_params.except(:defect_root_cause)) && #defect.defect_root_cause.update(defect_params[:defect_root_cause])
format.html { redirect_to #defect, notice: 'Defect was successfully updated.' }
format.json { render :show, status: :ok, location: #defect }
else
format.html { render :edit }
format.json { render json: #defect.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
# Never trust parameters from the scary internet, only allow the white list through.
def defect_params
#I am doing this because the attributes are not named :defect_root_cause_attribues, I don't know yet why
params.require(:defect).permit(:details, defect_root_cause: [:id, :details, :root_cause, :default_root_cause_id])
end
Now the view:
<%= form_for #defect do |f| %>
<% if #defect.errors.any? %>
<div id="error_explanation">
<h2><%= pluralize(#defect.errors.count, "error") %> prohibited this defect from being saved:</h2>
<ul>
<% #defect.errors.full_messages.each do |message| %>
<li><%= message %></li>
<% end %>
</ul>
</div>
<% end %>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label :details %><br>
<%= f.text_field :details %>
<%= f.fields_for #defect.defect_root_cause do |drc| %>
<%= drc.label :root_cause%>
<%= drc.collection_select(:default_root_cause_id, DefaultRootCause.all, :id, :root_cause, :prompt => true) %>
<%= drc.label :details%>
<%= drc.text_field :details %>
<% end %>
</div>
<div class="actions">
<%= f.submit %>
</div>
<% end %>
In the routes.rb I only have the following:
resources :default_root_causes
resources :defects
resources :defect_root_causes
# You can have the root of your site routed with "root"
root 'defects#index'
Finally, my problem (root_cause is nil):
irb(main):006:0> DefectRootCause.find(10)
DefectRootCause Load (0.3ms) SELECT `defect_root_causes`.* FROM `defect_root_causes` WHERE `defect_root_causes`.`id` = 10 LIMIT 1
=> #<DefectRootCause id: 10, details: "sadsad", defect_id: 9, default_root_cause_id: 2, created_at: "2016-02-19 05:52:06", updated_at: "2016-02-19 05:52:06", root_cause: nil>
if I change the select to:
<%= drc.collection_select(:root_cause, DefaultRootCause.all, :id, :root_cause, :prompt => true) %>
I get the following (root_cause is saved but it is a number not the text - in this case I want the following text: "second root cause", plus the default_root_cause_id is nil):
irb(main):005:0> DefectRootCause.find(9)
DefectRootCause Load (0.3ms) SELECT `defect_root_causes`.* FROM `defect_root_causes` WHERE `defect_root_causes`.`id` = 9 LIMIT 1
=> #<DefectRootCause id: 9, details: "das", defect_id: 8, default_root_cause_id: nil, created_at: "2016-02-19 05:42:36", updated_at: "2016-02-19 05:42:36", root_cause: "2">
EDIT:
Now I am posting what I have done to save all the information where I need it.
I am now posting as an answer because I still don't know if this is the right way of doing this.
So please, if you know it should be done differently let me know. I am looking especially at how to send all the information from the view. I saw the view "knows" both the id and the text of the selected DefaultRootCause, but I don't get both in the params sent.
So, now the code.
View:
<%= drc.select :default_root_cause_id, DefaultRootCause.all.collect{|r| [r.root_cause, r.id]}, :prompt => true %>
defects_controller.rb
def create
#defect = Defect.new(defect_params.except(:defect_root_cause))
#defect.defect_root_cause = DefectRootCause.create(defect_params[:defect_root_cause].merge(:root_cause => DefaultRootCause.find(defect_params[:defect_root_cause][:default_root_cause_id]).root_cause))
respond_to do |format|........
def update
respond_to do |format|
if #defect.update(defect_params.except(:defect_root_cause)) && #defect.defect_root_cause.update(defect_params[:defect_root_cause].merge(:root_cause => DefaultRootCause.find(defect_params[:defect_root_cause][:default_root_cause_id])))
With those I get the following params and also the following inserts:
Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", "authenticity_token"=>"jGUQIxeXWZwg5lqsPFrE4vO9z4ioRnAN/Z1/K9scQiIeQ0MTHBTvZoDcwHKtGvrgrG53y4yr7tX4wnCShoZ/oA==", "defect"=>{"details"=>"a", "defect_root_cause"=>{"default_root_cause_id"=>"2", "details"=>"a"}}, "commit"=>"Create Defect"}
DefaultRootCause Load (0.1ms) SELECT `default_root_causes`.* FROM `default_root_causes` WHERE `default_root_causes`.`id` = 2 LIMIT 1
CACHE (0.0ms) SELECT `default_root_causes`.* FROM `default_root_causes` WHERE `default_root_causes`.`id` = 2 LIMIT 1 [["id", "2"]]
CACHE (0.0ms) SELECT `default_root_causes`.* FROM `default_root_causes` WHERE `default_root_causes`.`id` = 2 LIMIT 1 [["id", "2"]]
(0.1ms) BEGIN
SQL (0.2ms) INSERT INTO `defect_root_causes` (`details`, `default_root_cause_id`, **`root_cause`**, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES ('a', 2, **'second root cause'**, '2016-02-23 07:10:59', '2016-02-23 07:10:59')
Now, please let me know if this is "the right" way to do this.
Thank you,
Victor

Answer 1

You are trying to update an associated attributes through the parent which means you need to use accepts_nested_attributes_for. Add this method to your Defect model like so:
class Defect < ActiveRecord::Base
has_one :defect_root_cause, :dependent => :destroy
has_many :default_root_cause, :through => :defect_root_cause
accepts_nested_attributes_for :defect_root_cause
end
After doing that, go to your defects_controller.rb and update the #defect_params method to:
params.require(:defect).permit(:details, defect_root_cause_attributes: [:id, :details, :root_cause, :default_root_cause_id])

Answer 2

You Can Use the following code:
<%=f.select :default_root_cause_id, DefaultRootCause.all.collect{|r| [r.route_cause,"#{r.route_cause} - #{r.id}"]} %>