form fields not appearing inside the object hash - ruby-on-rails

Question

I've created a Rails form to create an "event" (that's nested inside a group resource) with the following fields. The fields when and exactwhen (extremely poorly named, i know, I'm just creating a quick demo) are meant to refer to date and time
<%= form_for [#group, #event], url: {action: "create"}, html: {class: "nifty_form"} do |f| %>
<%= label_tag(:title, "Event Title") %>
<%= f.text_field :title %>
<%= label_tag(:description, "Event Description") %>
<%= f.text_area :description, size: "60x12" %>
<%= label_tag(:address, "Address") %>
<%= f.text_field :address %>
<%= label_tag(:when, "When") %>
<%= text_field_tag(:when) %>
<%= label_tag(:exactwhen, "exactwhen") %>
<%= text_field_tag(:exactwhen) %>
<%= f.submit "Create" %>
<% end %>
These fields exist on the event model in the database
create_table "events", force: true do |t|
t.string "title"
t.text "description"
t.string "address"
t.datetime "created_at"
t.datetime "updated_at"
t.integer "group_id"
t.date "when"
t.time "exactwhen"
end
However, when I submit the form, you'll notice that when and exactwhen are not contained in the event hash
Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", "authenticity_token"=>"5kkL2a3yDHEINSqSg+1cXd708GtRPgymbKmASs+eih8=", "event"=>{"title"=>"First Wankers Meeting", "description"=>"get drunk", "address"=>"57 Robert Crescent"}, "when"=>"08/23/2013", "exactwhen"=>"12", "commit"=>"Create", "group_id"=>"38"}
and the data for when and exactwhen are not getting inserted into the record
Group Load (0.6ms) SELECT "groups".* FROM "groups" WHERE "groups"."id" = $1 LIMIT 1 [["id", "38"]]
(0.2ms) BEGIN
SQL (2.0ms) INSERT INTO "events" ("address", "created_at", "description", "group_id", "title", "updated_at") VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6) RETURNING "id" [["address", "57 Robert Crescent"], ["created_at", Sat, 03 Aug 2013 16:38:30 UTC +00:00], ["description", "get drunk"], ["group_id", 38], ["title", "First Wankers Meetup"], ["updated_at", Sat, 03 Aug 2013 16:38:30 UTC +00:00]]
I'm assuming that the form data for when and exactwhen are not getting inserted into the db because they're not in the event hash. If that's the case, can you explain why, or explain how I could otherwise correct this problem?
This is the create action in the events_controller.rb
def create
#group = Group.find(params[:group_id])
#event = #group.events.build(event_params)
if #event.save
....
private
def event_params
params.require(:event).permit(:title, :description, :when, :exactwhen, :address)
end

Answer 1

You are using form_for. Change all your fields (and labels) to normal fields, not tag fields. So change text_field_tag to text_field.
If you do that, everything should work. Then all the attributes should be in the right params hash.
For more info check out form_for in the rails api docs.

Answer 2

Use f.text_field instead of text_field_tag like you do with the first few form fields