Importing data from a form? - ruby-on-rails

Question

I am trying to import four data fields. Child_id, First_name, Last_name, Medical. In my form it is only pulling in child_id:
<%= form_for #check_in, :url => {:controller => 'check_ins', :action => 'create' } do |f| %>
<% #account.children.each do |child| %>
<%= f.check_box :child_id, {:checked => 'checked', :multiple => true}, child.id.to_s %>
<%= image_tag child.photo.url(:thumb) %>
<span class="name"><%= child.first %>
<%= child.last %></span><br/>
<% end %>
<% end %>
Model associations:
class CheckIn < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :children
end
class Child < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :account
belongs_to :check_in
end
This is my create method in my check_ins controller.
def create
#check_in = CheckIn.new(params[:check_in])
begin
params[:check_in] [:child_id].each do |child_id|
unless child_id == 0.to_s
CheckIn.new(:child_id => child_id).save!
end
end
respond_to do |format|
format.html { redirect_to(:controller => 'sessions', :action => 'new') }
format.json { render json: #check_in, status: :created, location: #check_in }
end
rescue
respond_to do |format|
format.html { render action: "new" }
format.json { render json: #check_in.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
This form is also on a show page. The checkbox is there and next to the checkbox is the information pulled from another table: child.first, child.last. But those fields I want to be selected along with the checkbox like the child_id is.
Right now I have a child saved in my table with an id of 8 it would pull in the 8 but the fields for child.first and child.last aren't pulling into the new table that the id is.

Answer 1

Hm, by "import data field" you mean showing the attributes of child within your form?
The form looks ok to me, now it depends on things outside of this form.
I would check on the following:
Are the fields of child indeed named first, last and photo as used in
the code snippet, and opposed to those you listed in your question?
What are the contents of #account and #account.children? You could output both on your page to check.

Answer 2

I only see one form tag in your form block: f.check_box :child_id. The other stuff like <%=
child.first %> are not part of the form, even though they're within the form block.
EDIT:
There are a number of problems. First, going strictly by the way the associations are set up, CheckIn should not have child_id attribute. It has_many :children while Child belongs_to :check_in. CheckIn should not have a child_id, Child should have a check_in_id. Therefore you should be updating each selected child with a check_in_id value. I'd read up on ActiveRecord associations: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/association_basics.html
Second, the way the form is rendering controls I think you're ending up with multiple checkboxes with the same name. When rails assembles the params hash it's going to ignore all but the last hash item with a particular key. So even if everything else was set up correctly you'd still only save one child to a check in. I'd watch this tutorial on nested attributes:
http://railscasts.com/episodes/196-nested-model-form-part-1?view=asciicast
Lastly, I don't understand what you mean when you say it's not saving child.first and child.last (aka first_name and last_name?). That information is stored in the child object already, correct? Why would that be saved elsewhere?
If all of this was working correctly you'd be able to do things like this:
# find an account
account = Account.find(99)
# create a check_in
check_in = CheckIn.create
# save one or more (or all) of account's children to the check_in
check_in.children << account.children
# see the first name of a child associated with a check_in
check_in.children[0].first