rails forms updating a db record - ruby-on-rails

Question

I would like to rewrite a form which is used to update a record on a database.
I want to update the form so that the form input does not show the record, as
the record is outputted by the line
<%= q.object.content %>.
I want the
form input not to display the record, and I want that the record is updated
when the input field is edited, and is not edited when it is left blank.
I am new at working with forms and don't know the best way to achieve this.
Can anyone provide any help on achieving this ? Below is the current form. Any help would be appreciated.
<%= semantic_form_for #bunchOfThings do |f| %>
<%= f.inputs do %>
<%= f.semantic_fields_for :aThing, #aThing do |q| %>
<%= q.object.content %>
<%= q.input :content, label: "A Thing: #{q.object.content}" %>
<% end %>
<% end %>
<%= f.action :submit , label: t('Some Text'), button_html: { class: 'btn btn-primary' } %>
<% end %>

Answer 1

You can manually set the default value of a field to an empty string by changing this line:
<%= q.input :content, label: "A Thing: #{q.object.content}" %>
To this:
<%= q.input :content, label: "A Thing: #{q.object.content}", input_html: {value:''} %>
You would also need to filter out blank fields on the backend within the update controller method. Something like this:
def update
filtered_params = permitted_record_params
filtered_params.keep_if{|k,v| !v.blank? }
record.update(filtered_params)
...
end
Where of course the permitted_record_params method returns your permitted params hash.