Create and edit object using modal in rails - ruby-on-rails

Question

I've been trying to create and edit an object using a modal view in the index html in Rails. I'm using twitter bootstrap in the project. I m so far successful in creating the object using the modal.
For things to work, I had to create an object called #post = Post.new in my index action.
Since before the edit modal is displayed, the edit object must be ready as #post = Post.find(params[:id]), but it happens in the edit action.
Is their a way using which I can initialize #post for my edit modal view before it is displayed?
Here's my code:
index.html.erb
<div class="page-header">
<h1>Posts</h1>
</div>
<% #posts do |post| %>
<tr>
<td><%= post.name %></td>
<td><%= post.description %></td>
<td><%= link_to 'Edit', edit_post_path(post), :class => 'btn btn-mini btn-min-standard-width', :data => {:toggle => "modal", :target => "#editItemModal"} , :remote => true %>
<%= link_to 'Destroy', post, confirm: 'Are you sure?', method: :delete, :class => 'btn btn-mini btn-danger btn-min-standard-width' %></td>
</tr>
<% end %>
<%= link_to 'New Item', new_post_path,
:class => 'btn btn-primary btn-standard-width' , :data => {:toggle => "modal", :target => "#newItemModal"} , :remote => true %>
<div id="newItemModal" class="modal hide fade" >
<button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal">×</button></h1>
<div class="page-header">
<h1>New item </h1>
</div>
<%= render :partial => 'form' %>
</div>
<div id="editItemModal" class="modal hide fade" >
<button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal">×</button></h1>
<div class="page-header">
<h1>Edit item </h1>
</div>
<%= render :partial => 'form' %>
</div>
_form.html.erb
<%if #post%>
<%= form_for(#post, :html => { :class => 'form-horizontal', :remote => true } ) do |f| %>
<div class="control-group">
<%= f.label :name, :class => 'control-label' %>
<div class="controls">
<%= f.text_field :name %>
</div>
</div>
<div class="control-group">
<%= f.label :description, :class => 'control-label' %>
<div class="controls">
<%= f.text_area :description %>
</div>
</div>
<div class="form-actions">
<%= f.submit nil, :class => 'btn btn-primary' %>
</div>
<% end %>
<% end %>
PostController
class PostsController < ApplicationController
def index
#post = Post.new
#posts = Post.all
respond_to do |format|
format.html # index.html.erb
format.json { render json: #posts }
end
end
def show
#post = Post.find(params[:id])
respond_to do |format|
format.html # show.html.erb
format.json { render json: #post }
end
end
def new
#post = Post.new
end
def edit
#post = Post.find(params[:id])
respond_to do |format|
format.html
format.json { render json: #post }
end
end
............

Answer 1

As long as I understand you want to use instance variable #post in the edit modal view.
Without knowing your code base, what can I say:
Find the corresponding action in the controller that renders the edit modal view, create one if there is no
Initialize #post with the model Post found by id, just simply copy and paste that into the proper action
Call it within the view scope
Hope that answers your question