Rails 3.2 Nested Forms Not showing - ruby-on-rails

Question

My nested form fields for friends will not show no matter what i do..have the accepts_nested_attributes setup properly i believe?..
views/user_steps/show.html.erb
<%= simple_form_for #user do |f| %>
<%= f.input :city %>
<%= f.input :address %>
<%= f.input :zipcode %>
<%= f.input :date_of_birth %>
<%= f.input :gender, :collection => ['male','female'] %>
<%= f.association :interests, :as => :check_boxes, :label => false %>
<%= f.association :holidays, :as => :check_boxes, :label => false %>
<%= f.simple_fields_for :friends do |friend_f| %>
<%= friend_f.input :name %>
<%= friend_f.input :dob %>
<%= friend_f.input :gender %>
<% end %>
<%= f.button :submit %>
<%end%>
class UserStepsController < ApplicationController
def show
#user = current_user
end
def update
#user = current_user
#user.attributes = params[:user]
#friend = Friend.new(params[:friend])
end
def new
#user = User.new
#user.build_friend
end
end
class UsersController < ApplicationController
before_filter :authenticate_user!
def index
authorize! :index, #user, :message => 'Not authorized as an administrator.'
#users = User.paginate(:page => params[:page])
end
def show
#user = User.find(params[:id])
end
def create
#user = User.new(params[:user])
respond_to do |format|
if #user.save
format.html { redirect_to #user, notice: 'Friend birthday(1) was successfully created.' }
format.json { render json: #user, status: :created, location: #user }
else
format.html { render action: "new" }
format.json { render json: #user.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
def update
#user = User.find(params[:id])
respond_to do |format|
if #user.update_attributes(params[:user])
format.html { redirect_to #user, notice: 'User was successfully updated.' }
format.json { head :no_content }
else
format.html { render action: "edit" }
format.json { render json: #user.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
# DELETE /users/1
# DELETE /users/1.json
def destroy
#user = User.find(params[:id])
#user.destroy
respond_to do |format|
format.html { redirect_to users_url }
format.json { head :no_content }
end
end
end
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :name, :email, :password, :password_confirmation, :interests_attributes, :remember_me, :city, :zipcode, :date_of_birth, :gender, :address, :interest_ids, :holiday_ids
has_and_belongs_to_many :holidays
has_and_belongs_to_many :interests
has_many :friends
accepts_nested_attributes_for :friends, allow_destroy: true
accepts_nested_attributes_for :interests, allow_destroy: true
accepts_nested_attributes_for :holidays, allow_destroy: true
class Friend < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
attr_accessible :dob, :gender, :name
end

Answer 1

My guess is that #user has no friends, so there's nothing to render.
If this is creating a new user and you want them to be able to fill in their friends as well, do a #user.friends.build somewhere, which will add an empty friend to them, and should allow the nested fields to render.

Answer 2

I've found this answer several times on the net. I'm using ruby-2.2.0 with rails 4.2.0. I'd like to know if this has changed, or if it's something specific to me.
I had to use. #user.build_friends