Passing Custom Form Values to a Custom Controller Action - ruby-on-rails

Question

In Rails, I have a custom controller action that needs to accept some parameters from a form:
def update_ordid
# Get the active exchange
#exchange = Exchange.find(params[:id])
# Decide which order ID field to update
active_order_field = params[:ordfld]
# Save the order ID
order_id = params[:ordid]
if active_order_field == 1 then
#exchange.order_id_1 = order_id
else
#exchange.order_id_2 = order_id
end
#active_exchange.save
respond_with(#exchange)
end
Because these parameters aren't actual data fields in the exchange table, I would typically invoke the action by using a link such as:
link_to "Update Order ID", update_ordid_exchange(ordfld: value_from_form, ordid: value_from_form), :method => :post
Because in this case the value of these parameters needs to be populated by user input, I created the following form to pass the data:
<%= form_for(#exchange, url: update_ordid_exchange_path) do |f| %>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label :ordid, "Order ID" %><br>
<%= f.text_field :ordid, class: "form-control" %>
</div>
<% if #isrequestor == true %>
<%f.hidden_field :ordfld, :value => "1" %>
<% else %>
<%f.hidden_field :ordfld, :value => "2" %>
<% end %>
<div class="actions">
<%= f.submit "Submit", class: "btn btn-primary" %>
</div>
<% end %>
When I attempt to render this form, I receive the error: undefined method `ordid' for #
When researching this issue, I found that I could be able to do this by changing the text_field line to:
<%= f.text_field_tag :ordid, class: "form-control" %>
While this resolves the initial error, it throws a new error: undefined method `text_field_tag' for #
Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong?

Answer 1

You cannot use form_for since your form elements doesn't represent the attributes of a model. use form_tag instead
<%= form_tag(update_ordid_exchange_path, :method => :patch) do%>
<div class="field">
<%= label_tag "Order ID" %><br>
<%= text_field_tag :ordid, class: "form-control" %>
</div>
<% if #isrequestor == true %>
<%= hidden_field_tag :ordfld, "1" %>
<% else %>
<%= hidden_field_tag :ordfld, "2" %>
<% end %>
<div class="actions">
<%= submit_tag "Submit", class: "btn btn-primary" %>
</div>
<%end%>
Documentation here
form_tag vs form_for
hidden_field_tag

Answer 2

I'm a bit new to this myself, but I believe it's because you're calling "text_field_tag" from a form_for instead of form_tag builder object. Try just leaving off the form for object as such:
<%= text_field_tag :ordid, class: "form-control" %>