Processing two unassociated Rails models' forms in one controller action - ruby-on-rails

Question

I'm creating a Rails app that will take in input from two models and their respective forms, and then log into a website with Mechanize and do hundreds of tasks there.
The first form consists of the user's login information (the username and password, using the model User), and the second one is a long list of term names and their respective definitions (using the model Term and uploaded into the form as an Excel doc).
I have no need to associate these two models (unlike in similar SO questions, which seem to deal with nested models). Once this Mechanize task completes, I will destroy both models' objects from the database.
The two pieces of the app (logging in to the website; and uploading the terms and using them to interact with the website) both work perfectly in separate scripts.
My question is: How can I take in both models' information on one webpage and coordinate the controller(s) accordingly? In this situation, can I create both objects in one controller? (If not, that's fine, as long as there's an alternative; I'm game for whatever will get this to work.)
I'm posting some of my code below. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Please keep in mind I am pretty new at Rails, so is not very elegant code:
The User model:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessor :username, :password
end
And the Term model:
class Term < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :name, :definition
end
In my terms controller (the forms are located in the index action and the script is run in the show action):
def create
#term = Term.new(params[:term])
#user = User.new(params[:user])
if (#term.save && #user.save)
flash[:notice] = "Your terms have been sent for processing."
redirect_to terms_path
else
render :action => 'index'
end
end
def show
#term = Term.all
agent = Mechanize.new
page = agent.get('www.myurl.com')
#log into the website
#user.username = myform.field_with(:id => "userfield").value
#user.password = myform.field_with(:id => "passfield").value
#and then enter the term information into the website's forms
rest of Mechanize code goes here...
end
And in views/terms/index.html.erb:
#the login form:
<%= render 'loginform' %>
#the term file uploader:
<%= form_tag import_terms_path, multipart: true do %>
<%= file_field_tag :file %>
<%= submit_tag "Import" %>
<% end %>
<br>
<table id="terms">
<tr>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Definition</th>
</tr>
#displays the uploaded terms on the index page
<% #terms.each do |term| %>
<tr>
<td><%= term.name %></td>
<td><%= term.definition %></td>
</tr>
<% end %>
</table>
<p><%= link_to 'Update website with these terms', terms_update_terms_path %></p>
And in views/terms/_loginform.erb:
<%= form_for(#user) do |f| %>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label_tag(:username, 'Username') %><br />
<%= f.text_field_tag(:user, :username) %>
</div>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label_tag(:password, 'Password') %><br />
<%= f.password_field_tag(:user, :password) %>
</div>
<% end %>
And in views/terms/_termform.html.erb
<%= form_for(#term) do |f| %>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label :name %><br />
<%= f.text_field :name %>
</div>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label :definition %><br />
<%= f.text_area :definition %>
</div>
<div class="actions">
<%= f.submit %>
</div>
<% end %>

Answer 1

If you just need to save the data and truly don't want to associate the models, I would save the Term separately:
<%= form_for #user do |f| %>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label :username, 'Username' %>
<%= f.text_field :username %>
</div>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label :password %>
<%= f.password_field :password %>
</div>
<div class="field">
<%= label_tag :name %>
<%= text_field_tag :name %>
</div>
<div class="field">
<%= label_tag :definition %>
<%= text_field_tag :definition %>
</div>
<div class="actions">
<%= f.submit %>
</div>
<% end %>
Then in your controller:
#term = Term.new
#term.attributes = {
:name => params[:name],
:definition => params[:definition]
}
#term.save
If you are adding multiple term fields to the form, I would consider something like Cocoon, and just add an each loop for saving the Terms in the controller.