Successive form submission without losing data in Rails? - ruby-on-rails

Question

I am confused between the controller and views interaction. I have this initial form which validates the csv file uploaded. (POST form).
After this form is validated successfully, I give the user the option to confirm the details which, and this confirm button acts as another form.
The thing is I want to keep the details from the previous form values saved in the params hash. So basically I want to perform a merge with the second form.
Is this possible? If so, can you help me with the code for the second form cause currently it overrides the previous form. Both forms point to the same function in the controller.
<% unless #contents.blank? || #errors.present? %>
<form name="confirm_bulk_order" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data" class="search line" action="/orders/create_bulk_order" id="confirm_bulk_order">
<div class="search-btn-align" id="confirmButton">
<input type="submit" name="confirm_bulk_order" value="Confirm Order" class="lmargin10 uiButton">
</div>
</form>
<% else %>
<form name="upload_bulk_order_csv" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data" class="search line" action="/orders/create_bulk_order" id="upload_bulk_order_csv">
<div class="fileformField">
<span class="formlabel"> Upload CSV File: </span>
<input class="required" required="true" type="file" name="datafile"/>
</div>
<div class="search-btn-align" id="uploadButton">
<%= submit_tag 'Validate Bulk Order', :class => 'lmargin10 uiButton' %>
</div>
</form>
<% end %>
In controller orders
def create_bulk_corder
if #errors.blank? and params[:confirm_bulk_order]=="Confirm Order"
#Send the final REST order call
else
#contents = read_csv_file(params[:datafile]) if params[:datafile].present?
validate_order(#contents)
#Populate #errors etc, etc
....
....
end
render
end
What all changes must I make for this to be possible?

Answer 1

You're losing your params when the confirm button is pressed because they're not part of the confirm form. You could avoid this by adding a hidden field:
<form name="confirm_bulk_order" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data" class="search line" action="/orders/create_bulk_order" id="confirm_bulk_order">
<!-- This assumes that #contents is a simple value... it's probably not, so you might need several hidden_field_tags here, one for each part of #contents that you want in your params -->
<%= hidden_field_tag "contents", #contents %>
<!-- You probably also want to show the user some info about their submission here -->
<div class="search-btn-align" id="confirmButton">
<input type="submit" name="confirm_bulk_order" value="Confirm Order" class="lmargin10 uiButton">
</div>
</form>
If you go with this approach, be sure to re-validate params[:datafile] after submission, since a malicious user could change this param value to get around your validation logic.
Also, I suggest factoring your action into two separate actions, and likewise for the views. You've got if-else blocks where you really ought to have separate files.

Answer 2

I suggest maybe using a gem that deals with multi paged forms or wizards: https://www.ruby-toolbox.com/categories/rails_wizards