How to create multiple "has_many through" associations through one form? - ruby-on-rails

Question

I'm building a martial arts related database, currently I have the following associations set up:
Student has_and_belongs_to_many :styles
Style has_many :ranks
Student has_many :ranks, through: :gradings (and vice versa)
I'm generating a form as follows, depending on the student's styles:
So the headings are generated by the Style model (Tai Chi, Karate...), then their rankings listed below (taken from the Rank model), and the "Dojo" and "Date" fields should belong to the Grading model once created.
The question: I know how to build a form that creates one association (or one association + its children), but how do I build a form that creates multiple associations at once?
Also, what would be a clean way to implement the following:
Only lines which are ticked become associations
Dojo and date must be filled in for ticked lines to save successfully
If a line is unticked it will destroy any previously created associations
This is what I've currently implemented to retrieve the correct records:
class GradingsController < ApplicationController
before_filter :authenticate_sensei!
def index
#student = Student.includes(:styles).find(params[:student_id])
#ranks = Rank.for_student_styles(#student)
split_ranks_by_style
end
private
def split_ranks_by_style
#karate = #ranks.select_style("Karate")
#tai_chi = #ranks.select_style("Tai Chi")
#weaponry = #ranks.select_style("Weaponry")
end
end
# Rank model
def self.for_student_styles(student)
includes(:style).where("styles.id in (?)", student.styles.map(&:id))
end
def self.select_style(style)
all.map { |r| r if r.style.name == style }.compact
end

Answer 1

Complicated forms like this are best handled in a service object initiated in the primary resource's create or update action. This allows you to easily find where the logic is happening afterwards. In this case it looks like you can kick off your service object in your GradingsController. I also prefer formatting a lot of the data in the markup, to make the handling easier in the service object. This can be done a'la rails, by passing a name like "grade[style]" and "grade[rank]". This will format your params coming in as a convenient hash: {grade: {style: "karate", rank: "3"}}. That hash can be passed to your service object to be parsed through.
Without really grasping the full extent of your specific requirements, let's put together an example form:
<%= form_for :grading, url: gradings_path do |f| %>
<h1><%= #rank.name %></h1>
<%- #grades.each do |grade| %>
<div>
<%= hidden_field_tag "grade[#{grade.id}][id]", grade.id %>
<%= check_box_tag "grade[#{grade.id}][active]" %>
...
<%= text_field_tag "grade[#{grade.id}][date]" %>
</div>
<%- end %>
<%= submit_tag %>
<%- end %>
With a form like this, you get your params coming into the controller looking something like this:
"grade"=>{
"1"=>{"id"=>"1", "active"=>"1", "date"=>"2013-06-21"},
"3"=>{"id"=>"3", "date"=>"2013-07-01"}
}
Nicely formatted for us to hand off to our service object. Keeping our controller nice and clean:
class GradingsController < ApplicationController
def index
# ...
end
def create
builder = GradeBuilder.new(current_user, params['grade'])
if builder.run
redirect_to gradings_path
else
flash[:error] = 'Something went wrong!' # maybe even builder.error_message
render :action => :index
end
end
end
So now we just need to put any custom logic into our builder, I'd probably recommend just making a simple ruby class in your /lib directory. It could look something like this:
class GradeBuilder
attr_reader :data, :user
def self.initialize(user, params={})
#user = user
#data = params.values.select{|param| param['active'].present? }
end
def run
grades = data.each{|entry| build_grade(entry)}
return false if grades.empty?
end
private
def build_grade(entry)
grade = Grade.find(entry['id'])
rank = grade.rankings.create(student_id: user, date: entry['date'])
end
end
There will obviously need a lot more work to pass all the specific data you need from the form, and extra logic in the GradeBuilder to handle edge cases, but this will give you a framework to handle this problem in a maintainable and extensible way.