I have a page that works with various models.
One of the items is "Language", where I select the language and level. But I can only insert a single language. I wonder what the best way to insert a "New" button to add another language, even if the edit page (because even though I need to include in the edit page too)
I'm using accepts_nested_attributes_for and simple_form.
Have tried several solutions but could not find any similar tutorial with what I need.
When you mention you have a page which works with various models, you need to remember views != models. In rails, views are used to show data you have defined in your controllers.
When you ask about inserting a new button to add a new language, this will be entirely dependent on your interface, and how you wish it to work. A good example would be this:
#app/views/languages/_new_lang.html.erb
<%= form_for Language.new, url: language_path do |f| %>
<%= f.text_field :name %>
<%= f.submit "Create" %>
<% end %>
A better way to do this will be to use ajax & render a layout-less element on your page:
#app/views/controller/your_view.html.erb
<%= button_to "Test", new_language_path, remote: true, id: "test" %>
#app/controllers/languages_controller.rb
Class LanaguageController < ActiveRecord::Base
layout Proc.new { |controller| controller.request.xhr? ? false : "application" }
end
#app/assets/javascripts/application.js.erb
$(document).on("ajax:success", "#test", function(data) {
$(data).appendTo("body");
});
This will allow you to send the required data through to your system to create a new language. Can be improved, so if you want to use it please let me know in the comments
Related
I have a controller for customer. In the new action, I redirect to another page, which belong to the pages controller
class CustomersController < ApplicationController
def new
redirect_to register_path
end
Would it be possible to create the object in the registration action like this?
class PagesController < ApplicationController
def registration
#customer = Customer.new
end
end
I believe the setup is something like this: you have models in your application for a Customer and, say, an Agent. Your website users register as either and the desire is to have a single HTML page (URL) with both options available. They choose which one they are and submit some fields, say name/email/password. To keep it simple, without bothering with JavaScript to hide things behind tabs, you have something like:
**Customer**
Name: ___________
Email: __________
Password: _______
[Submit]
**Agent**
Name: ___________
Email: __________
Password: _______
[Submit]
You have a few options here to avoid your guilty feeling in the Rails controllers:
Go heavy client-side JavaScript. Don't have the new actions on the controllers. The JavaScript creates the page elements. The create action becomes a JSON API endpoint, thereby avoiding the problem in the Ruby application. This is obviously a significant architectural deviation from where I think you are today.
Use a little bit of JavaScript to dynamically load the correct 'partial' into the DOM when the user switches between the options. Avoids the underlying problem in the question by effectively separating the 'pages' out to the two controllers. The Pages→registration action does not need to set any instance variables for the view. The JavaScript deals with the partial loading. (see 'link_to' and the 'remote' option)
Don't include both forms in the same HTML page, just default to one, say the Customer one, and provide a link to navigate to the Agent one, e.g. a link in a tab, or a plain link like "Not a Customer? Register as an Agent." In this scenario, you have a neat mapping to the Ruby MVC design, each of the pages are just the new action of its relevant controller. The downside is a page load to change between the two options. This is the simplest, plainest choice … if you can get the boss to agree to the UX. PS: if you are using turbolinks, then the 'feel' of this option in the browser will be not far from option (2).
Stick to your design
Keep in mind that you will have difficultly dealing with error conditions and messages with option (4). You can do it, but the code won't be simple or easy to maintain.
If option (4) is a must, one simplification can be the create actions on each of the controllers rendering their own new in case of an error. If you submit the 'Agent' form from your starting page, with errors, to the Agents→create action, that action finishes with a render 'new' to show the user the Agents→new page. No 'customer' form is visible. You could then add a sprinkle of option (3) in there with a "Not an Agent? Register as a Customer." link under the form. Doing this greatly simplifies your error handling.
Which then leads to a suggestion for your original problem. Cheat. Don't have an #customer instance variable for the new actions (or the registration action). Use partials for the customer and agent forms, and pass in a new object to form_for, e.g.
pages/registration.html.erb
<%= render 'customers/new_form' %>
<%= render 'agents/new_form' %>
customers/new.html.erb
<%= render 'customers/new_form' %>
customers/_new_form.html.erb
<% form_for Customer.new do |f| %>
<%# include the inputs shared with the edit action %>
<%= render 'fields', f %>
<%= f.submit %>
<% end %>
customers/_fields.html.erb
<%# 'f' is one of the locals passed to the partial %>
<% f.input_field :name %>
<% f.email_field :email %>
<% f.password_field :password %>
customers/edit.html.erb
<% form_form #customer do |f| %>
<%= render 'fields', f %>
<%= f.submit %>
<% end %>
… then you would follow the same pattern for:
agents/new.html.erb
agents/_new_form.html.erb
agents/_fields.html.erb
agents/edit.html.erb
I know this is probably a very basic question but I am brand new to Ruby and kinda in a dead end. I have made a simple little site with profiles and profile pages. But on the profile pages I would like to add a new text field like "Bio" for instance where the user types in a bio about himself and it shows. Im just at a blank on how to create a new text field where people can input this stuff. I know this is basic stuff just stuck and looking for some help or guidance to a tutorial or something. Thank you in advance
Here's an example copied from another answer:
<%= form_for(:ad, :url => {:action => 'create'}) do |f| %>
<%= f.text_field(:name) %>
<%= f.text_area(:text, "", :size => "50x10") %>
<%= submit_tag("Submit") %>
<% end %>
This is kind of a complicated question, once you think about it, because there are so many parts.
Ruby on Rails is built on a architecture, called Model View Controller or MVC. The three parts together make the user interface that is presented to the user.
Models are the actual data, like the User objects, in this case. To create the model, type in this command to the console:
rails g model User bio:text name:string
This will make a basic user model, which only contains two columns, a column for the bio, and a column for their name. Note that this is very uncomplicated, and this can be expanded on a lot, but for now it will do.
Or, if you already have a user model, type in this command to the console:
rails g migration add_bio_to_users bio:text
Next are the controllers, controllers are, in a way, what connect the models and the views, so they manage all of the logic in the back end, like creating new users, or adding bios to their profiles.
You can create the user controller like this (if you do not already have one):
rails g controller Users new
And then, you can add this code to the new file generated, to add the functionality of adding bios (and showing them, too) (and updating other columns as well):
def update
#user = User.find(params[:id])
if #user.update_attributes(user_params)
render #user
else
render #user # Handle error accordingly
end
end
def show
#user = User.find(params[:user])
end
private
def user_params
params.require(:user).permit(:name, :bio)
end
Now, to the final part, which is the view, which is the actual thing that is presented to the user:
<%= form_for(:user, :url => {:action => 'update'}) do |f| %>
<%= f.text_field(:name) %>
<%= f.text_area(:bio, "", :size => "50x50") %>
<%= f.submit yield(:button_text) %>
<% end %>
Note that this is just a simple view that assumes that you also have a column name in your User model, you can change this accordingly.
And, finally, to show the user, add this to the show view:
<%= #user.bio %>
to show the bio in the show view.
Good luck!
What is the 'Rails way' to provide access to methods such as the following from a view
def approve!
self.update_attribute status, 'approved'
end
Is it best to create a link to a custom route
<%= link_to 'Approve', approve_object_path(#object) %>
#objects_controller.rb
def approve
#object.approve!
end
Or to create an update form
<%= simple_form_for #object do |f| %>
<%= f.input :status, input_html { value: 'approved' }, as: :hidden %>
<%= f.submit %>
<% end %>
On the one hand, using a form and not using the approve! method at all seems to align better with restful routes.
On the other hand, a link to a custom route seems to provide less opportunity for submitted values to be manipulated by the user, and also requires less code to implement.
Which is the preferred way to do this?
I don't know if there's a preferred best practice, per se...
Just my opinion, but I normally do the link_to approach, and for an "state machine" like your example. The need for an entire form for a simple action like this is a lot of extra code that isn't necessary when an action can be called to change the state.
The counter argument to this is that it breaks CRUD, and requires a non-CRUD route. Convention over configuration champions would probably prefer an entire new controller to change the state of the object.
TL;DR - I do the link_to approach, and I use :remote => true to make it asynchronous so the page doesn't even reload (unless you need the page to redirect elsewhere).
You can change state remotely with both the scenarios.
But I think if only a state has to be changed then use link_to. As we don't need to have form features with listed attributes in params here.
In my index action of the hours controller I want to be able to switch between the diplayed hours.
I am using a calendar_for table and inside the calendar I display the tracked times (hours) of the different user of my rails app.
As I am using a quite complex calendar structure with some calculation inside, I don't know how to extract it to a partial, so I want the onchange event, which fires in the select_tag, to reload the index action with a different parameter.
I tried
<% form_for :hours, :url => { :action => "index" } do |f| %>
<%= select_tag :user_id, options_from_collection_for_select(User.find(:all), :id, :name),
{ :onchange => "this.form.submit();"} %>
<% end %>
but this brings me to the new / form view (like i want to add a new record)? also the url just shows /hours
Any help would be appreciated....
I basically want that after changing the select menu the url looks like /hours?user_id=<id from select_tag>
thanks
I do not quite understand why do you need a form? The simplest way from my opinion is update your application.js file with something like this (assuming you use jquery):
$("#selector_id").change ( function () {
window.location.replace('/hours?'+this.id);
});
Though probably there is some pretty rails helper for that.
I have created a form that needs to show data from 2 tables (parent and child). When the form is submitted only the child fields are updated (the parent fields are meant to be display only). While the parent model fields are displayed these need to be protected from updates (preferably via the formbuilder, rather than via css).
FWIW this is a pretty common master/detail use case. However I have not been able to find any examples of this - most of the examples I've seen seem to be trivial/single model display/update where all displayed fields are updateable).
Any ideas/samples/suggestion/tutorials/examples of real world, multi model Rails forms would be helpful.
TIA
Just out of interest, why bother going through the motions of creating a multi-model form when you only want to update the child record? My advice would be keep your form simple, I.e. make it a child form and just display the data from the parent record. If needs be, you could even style that display to look like part of the form, although I think that may throw the user off.
If you really need to do what you are doing, I would still use CSS to disable/readonly the input fields and in your controller update action, only pass the attributes you want to update into the update_attributes method call.
Finally, maybe look into the attr_protected method to prevent the fields you may want protecting from accidental mass-assignment.
I agree with tsdbrown, I don't think a complex form is required. If you'd like to learn more about complex forms or you really have your heart set on using a complex form I'd recommend watching the Railscasts episodes (73 - 75).
As tsdbrown said before, you are adding a complexity layer to your forms that's not need. If all you want is to update a detail model, while showing some info of it's parent, you could just do so with something like:
Order number: <%= #line_item.order.number %>
Order date: <%= #line_item.order.order_date %>
<% form_for #line_item do |f| %>
<%= f.label :quantity %>
<%= f.text_edit :quantity %>
<% end %>
When you'd like to edit both, then you can research on the field_for and nested forms methods (the Railscasts suggestion mentioned before it's great).
Thx for the responses which helped resolve my problem/question. Just want to close this out in case it helps others in the future.
Turns out I had been getting an error trying to reference my parent data element (patients.lname) as it was being passed in an array of results, rather than as a single result. In my view controller I had:
#visit = Visit.all(:select => "visits.id, visits.visittype, visits.visitdate, events.patient_id, patients.lname",
:conditions => ["visits.id = ?",params[:id] ],
:joins => "INNER JOIN events on events.id = visits.event_id INNER JOIN patients on patients.id = events.patient_id" )
In my view I had (this was giving me an invalid reference as I was doing a find all above):
<h1>Editing visit for patient :
<%= #visit.lname %> # should be <%= #visit[0].lname %>
</h1>
Below is the improved (and simpler) version where I find the specific record I need (basically replacing find all with find first):
#visit = Visit.find(:first, :select => "visits.id, visits.visittype, visits.visitdate, events.patient_id, patients.lname",
:conditions => ["visits.id = ?",params[:id] ],
:joins => "INNER JOIN events on events.id = visits.event_id INNER JOIN patients on patients.id = events.patient_id" )
And in the view:
<% form_for(#visit, :builder => LabelFormBuilder) do |f| %>
<%= f.error_messages %>
Name: <%= #visit.lname %>
<%= f.text_field :visittype %>
<%= f.date_select :visitdate %>
<p>
<%= f.submit 'Update' %>
</p>
<% end %>
Sometimes it's hard to see the wood for the trees! Hope this helps someone else.