Rails 4 Params not passed to the controller from the form - ruby-on-rails

Question

I am using a form for "GET" method. I created a text field (in testing.html.erb) for user to enter the name. I want the name to be passed into the controller and based on the name, I want to retrieve his data from the database through a query.
The problem here is that I am not getting anything into the instance variable in the controller action (Nothing is printed on screen when I display #testing in "testing.html.erb"). Below is my routes.rb file.
Rails.application.routes.draw do
resources :users
# The priority is based upon order of creation: first created -> highest priority.
# See how all your routes lay out with "rake routes".
# You can have the root of your site routed with "root"
# root 'welcome#index'
# Example of regular route:
get 'index' => 'users#index'
get 'testing' => 'users#testing'
# Example of named route that can be invoked with purchase_url(id: product.id)
# get 'products/:id/purchase' => 'catalog#purchase', as: :purchase
.....
This is my testing.html.erb file
<h1> Testing page </h1>
<%= form_for users_path, :url => {:action => "testing", :name => :name}, :html => {:method => :get} do |f| %>
<%= f.label :first_name %><br />
<%= f.text_field :name %><br />
<%= f.submit "View Schedule" %>
<% end %>
<%= #testing %>
<%#= #testing.email %>
<%#= #testing.content %>
Please note that I commented #testing.email/content in above file to supress the error (undefined method `email' for nil:NilClass).
Below is my users_controller.rb file.
class UsersController < ApplicationController
before_action :set_user, only: [:show, :edit, :update, :destroy]
#before_action :user_set, only: [:testing]
# GET /users
# GET /users.json
def index
#users = User.all
#test = params[:name]
#test_index = params[:age]
end
# GET /users/1
# GET /users/1.json
def show
end
def testing
#testing = User.find_by(name: params[:name])
#if #testing.name == "Siri"
# #render text: "Hello #{#testing.name}"
#redirect_to action: :index
#end
end
.........
private
# Use callbacks to share common setup or constraints between actions.
def set_user
#user = User.find(params[:id])
end
# Never trust parameters from the scary internet, only allow the white list through.
def user_params
params.require(:user).permit(:name, :email, :content)
end
end
The log-file shows the following.
Processing by UsersController#testing as HTML
Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", "/users"=>{"name"=>"hello rails"}, "commit"=>"View Schedule"}
I also tried to use strong params as User.find_by(name: params[:users][:name]) which throws error "undefined method `[]' for nil:NilClass".
I think I am going wrong somewhere. Please correct me. Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

Issue lies here:
Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", "/users"=>{"name"=>"hello rails"}, "commit"=>"View Schedule"}
Do you see /users key in your params? It shoudn't be there. This indicates problem with your form:
<%= form_for users_path, :url => {:action => "testing", :name => :name}, :html => {:method => :get} do |f| %>
First argument is expected to be a string (which is then used as a name of form params) or ActiveModel object. In your case, it is string returned by users_path, which is just '/users'. It should be #testing
<%= form_for #testing, :url => {:action => "testing", :name => :name}, :html => {:method => :get} do |f| %>
That will fix your current issue, you will get another shortly after that, which should go into a separate question.

Answer 2

You'll be best using the following:
#app/views/users/testing.html.erb
<%= #user.try(:name) %>
<%= form_tag users_testing_path, method: :get do |f| %>
<%= f.text_field :name %>
<%= f.submit "View Schedule" %>
<% end %>
This will allow:
#app/controllers/users_controller.rb
class UsersController < ApplicationController
def testing
#user = User.find_by name: params[:name]
end
end
You could improve your routes file too:
#config/routes.rb
resources :users, path: "", only: :index, path_names: { index: "index" } do #-> url.com/index
get :testing, on: :collection #-> url.com/testing
end