Rails has_many checkboxes with extra attribtues - ruby-on-rails

We have the following code working for a complex rails form with checkboxes. I'm not really happy with the solution we have in place and I was wondering if anyone knows of a more proper way to do this in rails. All the code below is working I just want to know if there is a cleaner approach.
In my Admins controller I want to remove the need to call the following code on each update.
#user.admin.school_admin_roles.destroy_all
params[:roles].each do |school_role|
ids = school_role.split('_')
#user.admin.school_admin_roles.find_or_create_by_school_id_and_school_role_id(ids[0], ids[1])
end if !params[:roles].nil?
So I basically want to be able to call #user.update_attributes(params[:user]) and have rails take care of creating the needed relationships for me. I have that working with AccountRole in the form below. I want to know if there is a way to do the same thing with SchoolRole given I have an extra variable school_id in the join table.
We have the following form for editing a user and assigning roles
Screenshot of form ->
http://i.stack.imgur.com/PJwbf.png
I have the following form where an admin can edit other users and assign account based roles and school based roles via checkboxes. The account based roles were easy to implement. The school based rules are a bit complicated since the join table school_admin_roles has school_id, user_id, role_id fields. We had to implement the school roles part of the form in a rather hackish way. We have the form implemented like this - notice how we hacked together school.id.to_s+'_'+role.id.to_s into the same checkbox on school roles.
In the Admins controller's update function we manually destroy all school_admin roles on each update then loop through the school roles params do a split on the ids on '-' then manually re-create each school based role. I really hate the way we've had to go about this. Could anyone shed some light on a cleaner more rails centric approach to solving this scenario?
The form -
<%= form_for #user, :url => {:controller => 'admins', :action => 'update'} do |f| %>
<%= f.label :username %>
<%= f.text_field :username %>
<%= f.fields_for :admin do |uf| %>
<div class="field">
<%= uf.label :first_name %>
<%= uf.text_field :first_name %>
</div>
<label>Admin Permissions</label>
#account level permissions works fine
<%= hidden_field_tag "#{uf.object_name}[account_role_ids][]" %>
<% AccountRole.find(:all).each do |role| %>
<div class="account_role">
<%= check_box_tag "#{uf.object_name}[account_role_ids][]", role.id, #user.admin.account_roles.include?(role)%>
<%= role.name %>
</div>
<% end %>
#school level permissions a bit of a hack
<%= hidden_field_tag "#{uf.object_name}[school_role_ids][]" %>
<% SchoolRole.find(:all).each_with_index do |role, index| %>
<div class="school_role">
<%= check_box_tag "#{uf.object_name}[school_role_ids][]",role.id, #user.admin.school_roles.include?(role) %>
<%= role.name %>
<span class="advanced_box admin_permissions" <% if #user.admin.school_roles.include?(role) %>style="display:inline"<% end %>>
<div class="content" id="perm_<%= index %>">
<h4><%= role.name %></h4>
<% uf.object.account.schools.each do |school|%>
<div>
<%= check_box_tag "roles[]", school.id.to_s+'_'+role.id.to_s, role.school_admin_roles.where(:admin_id => uf.object.id).collect(&:school_id).include?(school.id)%>
<%= school.name %>
</div>
<% end %>
<%= link_to 'Done', '#', :class => "done" %>
</div>
Advanced
</span>
</div>
<% end %>
</div>
<% end %>
The controller
class AdminsController < ApplicationController
def update
#user = User.find(params[:id])
if #user.update_attributes(params[:user])
# TODO find a way to refactor this
#user.admin.school_admin_roles.destroy_all
params[:roles].each do |school_role|
ids = school_role.split('_')
#user.admin.school_admin_roles.find_or_create_by_school_id_and_school_role_id(ids[0], ids[1])
end if !params[:roles].nil?
#
flash[:notice] = "Successfully updated Admin."
redirect_to admins_path
else
render "edit"
end
end
end
Given the following models
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_one :parent
has_one :admin
has_many :scool_admin_roles
has_many :account_admin_roles
end
class AccountAdminRole < ActiveRecord::Base
before_save :set_account_id
belongs_to :admin
belongs_to :account_role
end
class SchoolAdminRole < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :admin
belongs_to :school_role
belongs_to :school
end
class SchoolRole < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :school_admin_roles
end
class AccountRole < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :account_admin_role
end

When I face code that I know smells bad, usually it leads me to the design.
In this case, the problem is the database table design.
You are hacking the value passed from a checkbox with a delimiter because the "join" table does more than just join. I believe that the relationship to school belongs_to the SchoolRole and not the SchoolAdminRole. Changing this will create a pattern much like your AccountRole.
Correcting the model design, might be a bit painful now, but it is much cleaner and will be maintainable in the future. You will thank yourself later.

We refactored the code above as follows
In the model we added accepts_nested_attributes_for :school_admin_roles, :reject_if => proc { |attr| attr['school_role_id'].blank? }
and added school_admin_roles_attributes to attr_accessible
class Admin < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :account
belongs_to :user
has_many :school_admin_roles
has_many :school_roles, :through => :school_admin_roles
has_many :account_admin_roles
has_many :account_roles, :through => :account_admin_roles
accepts_nested_attributes_for :account
accepts_nested_attributes_for :school_admin_roles, :reject_if => proc { |attr| attr['school_role_id'].blank? }
attr_accessible :account_role_ids, :email, :first_name, :last_name, :account_id, :user_id, :account_attributes, :school_admin_roles_attributes
default_scope where(:deleted => false)
end
We then built the form as follows
<% index2 = 0 %>
<% SchoolRole.find(:all).each_with_index do |role, index| %>
<div class="school_role">
<%= check_box_tag "school_roles[]",role.id, #user.admin.school_roles.include?(role) %>
<%= role.name %>
<span class="advanced_box admin_permissions" <% if #user.admin.school_roles.include?(role) %>style="display:inline"<% end %>>
div class="content" id="perm_<%= index %>">
<h4><%= role.name %></h4>
<% uf.object.account.schools.each do |school|%>
<div>
<%= check_box_tag "#{uf.object_name}[school_admin_roles_attributes][#{index2}][school_role_id]", role.id, role.school_admin_roles.where(:admin_id => uf.object.id).collect(&:school_id).include?(school.id)%>
<%= school.name %>
<%= hidden_field_tag "#{uf.object_name}[school_admin_roles_attributes][#{index2}][school_id]", school.id %>
</div>
<% index2 += 1 %>
<% end %>
<%= link_to 'Done', '#', :class => "done" %>
</div>
Advanced
</span>
</div>
<% end %>
</div>
<% end %>
Which then enabled us to refactor the controller without splitting the ids but we still have to call destroy all each time which I can live with.
def update
#user = User.find(params[:id])
#user.admin.school_admin_roles.destroy_all
if #user.update_attributes(params[:user])
flash[:notice] = "Successfully updated Admin."
redirect_to admins_path
else
render "edit"
end
end

Related

Rails/ActiveRecord - association not saving

I can't get my CheckIn record to save because the associated Tenancy isn't saving.
I have three models with associations:
class Property < ApplicationRecord
has_many :tenancies
end
class Tenancy < ApplicationRecord
belongs_to :property
has_many :check_ins
end
class CheckIn < ApplicationRecord
belongs_to :tenancy
accepts_nested_attributes_for :tenancy
end
I want the CheckIn new action to create both the CheckIn and the associated Tenancy:
def new
#check_in = CheckIn.new
#check_in.build_tenancy.property_id = params[:property_id]
end
I have to include the property_id part otherwise the Tenancy won't save.
The form in check_ins/new.html.erb:
<%= form_for #check_in, url: property_check_ins_path do |f| %>
<%= f.label :date_time %>
<%= f.datetime_select :date_time, {minute_step: 15} %>
<%= f.label :tenancy %>
<%= f.fields_for :tenancy do |i| %>
<%= i.date_select :start_date %>
<% end %>
<%= f.submit "Create Check In" %>
<% end %>
I've added tenancy attributes to the strong params in the CheckInsController:
def check_in_params
params.require(:check_in).permit(:tenancy_id, :date_time, tenancy_attributes: [:start_date])
end
It's worth noting that the check_ins routes are nested in properties:
resources :properties do
resources :check_ins, only: [:new, :create]
end
So the problem is that by the time I get to the create action in the CheckInsController, the tenancy that I built has disappeared. I'm not sure how and when each of the records should be being saved and the slight complexity of what I'm trying to achieve has made it quite difficult to find relevant help so any ideas?
I'm using Rails 5.
The problem was that the property attached to the tenancy was being forgotten. I removed the property attachment from the new action:
def new
#check_in = CheckIn.new
#check_in.build_tenancy
end
Added a hidden field for property_id to the form (as well as adding :property_id to the strong params):
<%= f.fields_for :tenancy do |i| %>
<%= i.date_select :start_date %>
<%= i.hidden_field :property_id, value: params[:property_id] %>
<% end %>
And saved the tenancy in the CheckIn create action, prior to saving the check in itself:
def create
#check_in = CheckIn.new(check_in_params)
#check_in.tenancy.save
if #check_in.save
redirect_to property_check_in_path(#check_in.tenancy.property.id, #check_in)
else
render :new
end
end
I'd certainly be interested if anyone could pick holes in this solution or offer a better one.
Using nested resources (check_ins depends from properties) you create a namespaces routes. form_for helper ( rails guides - form helpers ) when you build your form, need a Property reference also.
I try to explain me better with an example:
#checks_controller.rb
def new
#property = Property.new
#check_in = #property.build_check_ins
#check_in.build_tenancy
end
#check_ins/new.html.erb
<%= form_for [#property, #check_in], url: property_check_ins_path do |f| %>
<%= f.label :date_time %>
<%= f.datetime_select :date_time, {minute_step: 15} %>
<%= f.label :tenancy %>
<%= f.fields_for :tenancy do |i| %>
<%= i.date_select :start_date %>
<% end %>
<%= f.submit "Create Check In" %>
<% end %>
I haven't tried this code, but I hope this give you at least a way to follow to solve your problem.

Rails - How to avoid using hidden_fields in the view to pass values to controller?

Is there a way I can avoid the hidden_field method of passing values in the view to a controller? I would prefer a controller method for security reasons. Unfortunately value pairing #variables is not supported in strong_parameters.
EDIT 6/18 1:00 PM EST
I've renamed my garages controller to appointments
cars_controller no longer creates a new appointment (formally garages). A new appointment is created in the
appointments_controller
My current structure
routes
Rails.application.routes.draw do
resources :techs, only: [:index, :show], shallow: true do
resources :cars, only: [:new, :create]
end
resources :appointments
#For searchkick
resources :cars, only: [:show] do
collection do
get 'search'
end
end
root "home#index"
end
models
tech.rb
class Tech < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick
has_many :appointments
has_many :customers, :through => :appointments
has_many :service_menus
has_many :services
has_many :cars
end
service.rb
class Service < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :tech
belongs_to :service_menu
has_many :cars, dependent: :destroy
accepts_nested_attributes_for :cars, :reject_if => :all_blank, :allow_destroy => true
end
car.rb
class Car < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :service
belongs_to :tech
has_many :appointments
end
appointment.rb
class Garage < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :customer
belongs_to :tech
belongs_to :car
end
controllers
cars_controller
def new
#car = Car.find(params[:id])
#tech = Tech.find(params[:tech_id])
#appointment = Garage.new
end
appointments_controller
def create
#appointment = current_customer.appointments.build(appointment_params)
if #appointment.save
redirect_to appointments_path, notice: "You car has been added to this appointment."
else
redirect_to appointments_path, notice: "Uh oh, an error has occured."
end
end
private
def appointment_params
params.require(:appointment).permit(:tech_id, :service_id, :car_id, ...and a bunch of other keys here)
end
views
cars.new.html
Please note this form passes hidden values to the appointment_controller.
Value from #car.name and other alike are not from a text_field but rather a pre-defined value based on selections from a previous page which is store in the cars db.
<%= simple_form_for(#appointment, { class: 'form-horizontal' }) do |f| %>
<%= f.hidden_field :tech_id, value: #tech.id %>
<%= f.hidden_field :car_id, value: #car.id %>
<%= f.hidden_field :service_id, value: #car.service.id %>
<%= f.hidden_field :customer_car, value: current_customer.car %>
<%= f.hidden_field :customer_street_address, value: current_customer.street_address %>
<%= f.hidden_field :customer_city, value: current_customer.city %>
<%= f.hidden_field :customer_state, value: current_customer.state %>
<%= f.hidden_field :customer_zip_code, value: current_customer.zip_code %>
<%= f.hidden_field :service_name, value: #car.service.service_menu.name %>
<%= f.hidden_field :car_name, value: #car.name %>
<%= **And a bunch of other hidden values here which are too long to list** %>
<%= f.submit "Add to appointment", class: 'btn btn-default' %>
<% end %>
service.html
<%= render 'form' %>
_form.html
<%= simple_form_for #service do |f| %>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label "Select service category" %>
<br>
<%= collection_select(:service, :service_menu_id, ServiceMenu.all, :id, :name, {:prompt => true }) %>
<%= f.fields_for :cars do |task| %>
<%= render 'car_fields', :f => task %>
<% end %>
</div>
<div class="links">
<%= link_to_add_association 'Add New Car', f, :cars, class: 'btn btn-default' %>
</div><br>
<div class="actions">
<%= f.submit %>
</div>
<% end %>
_car_fields.html
<div class="nested-fields">
<div class="field">
<%= f.label :name %><br>
<%= f.text_field :name %><br>
<%= f.label :hours %>
<%= f.select :hours, '0'..'8' %>
<%= f.label :minutes %>
<%= f.select :minutes, options_for_select( (0..45).step(15), selected: f.object.minutes) %><br>
<%= f.label :price %><br>
<%= f.text_field :price, :value => (number_with_precision(f.object.price, :precision => 2) || 0) %> <br>
<%= f.label :details %><br>
<%= f.text_area :details %></div>
<%= link_to_remove_association "Remove Car", f, class: 'btn btn-default' %>
<%= f.hidden_field :tech_id, value: current_tech.id %>
<br>
<hr>
</div>
> Edit 7/14 1:30 pm EST
Brief Synopsis on this specific function of the application
A customer clicks through a list of services a tech has to offer
The customer selects a service for example brakes which is a service a tech has listed in his profile.
The attributes for brakes are listed in the cars db
cars belongs_to to techs
The customer can save brakes which is an attribribute of a techs car to a appointment
A good number of predefined values from tech, the customer's street address, etc..., and the car are pre-loaded in the form for storing in the appointments table.
appointment acts as a histories table. So if the tech decides to modify any one of his services in this example brakes, the appointments tables will remain untouched for the brakes entry.
Once the customer selects the Add to appointment button, it will save all of the predefined values from tech, customer, and car attributes (in this example brakes) to the appointments db.
Another approach to this would be to get rid of the strong parameters altogether and do the following:
def create
#appointment = Garage.create(tech_id: #car.service.tech.id,
customer_id: current_customer.id,
customer_street_address: current_customer.street_address,
customer_city: current_customer.city,
customer_state: current_customer.state,
customer_zip_code: current_customer.zip_code,
customer_phone_number: current_customer.phone_number,
customer_location_type: "WILL ADD LATER",
customer_latitude: current_customer.latitude,
customer_longitude: current_customer.longitude,
service_id: #car.service.id,
service_name: #car.service.name,
car_id: #car.id,
car_name: #car.name,
car_time_duration: #car.time_duration,
price: #car.price,
car_details: #car.details)
if #appointment.save
redirect_to techs_path, notice: "This service has been saved."
elsif
redirect_to tech_path, notice: "Uh oh, an error has occurred."
end
end
Please let me know if you require further details.
I can think of some methods you could use to avoid this form bloated with hidden_fields:
Share data between controllers in the user's session, pretty much like a shopping cart in an e-commerce application.
If you prefer to preserve the statelessness of the application, create a model to temporarily store these informations; this way you'll only need to include one hidden_field in the form.
Use JavaScript to make the requests, storing the data in local objects and passing them as JSON when needed (this is trivial using AngularJS).
Whichever method you choose, keep in mind that storing a lot of state in a web application usually is a code smell. You can always rethink your application so you don't need to keep so much context.
To resolve my issue, my latest edit from my initial post stated the following:
EDIT 6/18 1:00 PM EST
I've renamed my garages_controller to appointments_controller
cars_controller no longer creates a new appointment (formally garages). A new appointment is created in the appointments_controller
Only hidden_field i'm passing is the car_id in the appointments view /new.html.erb <%= f.hidden_field :car_id, value: #car.id %>.
In the appointments_controller, I'm assigning all the car attributes doing the following.
def create
#appointment = current_customer.appointments.build(appointment_params)
#appointment.tech_id = #appointment.car.service.tech.id
#appointment.price = #appointment.car.price
#appointment.car_name = #appointment.car.name
#appointment.car_details = #appointment.car.details
if #appointment.save
redirect_to appointments_path, notice: "Thank you booking your appointment."
else
redirect_to appointments_path, notice: "Uh oh, an error has occurred. Please try again or contact us for further assistance"
end
end
Thank you all for your responses.
I should've known better. :(
You could move that stuff into a callback and only pass the customer_id and car_id with the form. This way garage instance will know about it's customer and car parents and you can do something like:
class Garage < ActiveRecord::Base
before_create :copy_stuff
private
def copy_stuff
self.customer_street_address = customer.street_address
self.car_name = car.name
# and so on
end
end
Is there a way I can avoid the hidden_field method of passing values
in the view to a controller?
You can disable those fields in the HTML/view by adding attribute disabled: true to the hidden input field tags to achieve what you asked for.
Not sure about the syntax exactly, but should be something like this for example
f.hidden_field :tech_id, value: #tech.id, disabled: true

Rails 4 - checkboxes for has_and_belongs_to_many association

I recently had a problem getting checkboxes to work for a has_and_belongs_to_many (HABTM) association in Rails 4. I was able to find the information on how to get it working correctly in a few disparate places, but thought it would be good to document the few simple steps necessary to get it working correctly in one place here on StackOverflow.
As a setup assume a model of Kennel with a HABTM association to Handler.
class Kennel
has_and_belongs_to_many :handlers
end
This is all you need to do for the form: Don't do it manually when there is a built in helper.
<%= form_for #kennel do |f| %>
<%= f.collection_check_boxes(:handler_ids, Handler.all, :id, :to_s) %>
<% end %>
The form should have something like this:
<%= form_for(#kennel) do |form| %>
...
<div class="field">
<div class="field_head">Handlers</div>
<%= hidden_field_tag("kennel[handler_ids][]", nil) %>
<% Handler.order(:name).each do |handler| %>
<label><%= check_box_tag("kennel[handler_ids][]", id, id.in?(#kennel.handlers.collect(&:id))) %> <%= handler.name %></label>
<% end %>
</div>
...
<% end %>
The hidden_field_tag allows the user to uncheck all the boxes and successfully remove all the associations.
The controller needs to allow the parameter through strong parameters in the permitted_params method:
params.permit(kennel: [:city, :state
{handler_ids: []},
:description, ...
])
References:
http://railscasts.com/episodes/17-habtm-checkboxes
https://coderwall.com/p/_1oejq
I implement has_and_belongs_to_many association this way:
model/role
class Role < ActiveRecord::Base
has_and_belongs_to_many :users
end
model/user
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_and_belongs_to_many :roles
end
users/_form.html.erb
---
----
-----
<div class="field">
<% for role in Role.all %>
<div>
<%= check_box_tag "user[role_ids][]", role.id, #user.roles.include?(role) %>
<%= role.name %>
</div>
<% end %>
</div>
users_controller.rb
def user_params
params.require(:user).permit(:name, :email, { role_ids:[] })
end
Intermediate table_name should be roles_users and there should be two fields:
role_id
user_id

How to update child record in nested form in rails

How would I update a collection of child 'Product' rows when submitting the form below.
Many thanks
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :products, :class_name => 'Product', :inverse_of => :user
accepts_nested_attributes_for :products
end
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user, :inverse_of => :products
end
The View
<%= form_for(#user) do |f| %>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label :name %><br>
<%= f.text_field :name %>
</div>
<%= f.fields_for :products do |builder| %>
<% builder.text_field :name %>
<% end %>
<div class="actions">
<%= f.submit %>
</div>
<% end %>
Here is somewhat minimal update action:
# app/controller/users_controller.rb
def update
# Get the user in param
#user = User.find(params[:id])
# Update attributes
if #user.update_attribute(params[:user])
# Redirect to :show for this user.
redirect_to :show
else
# update_attriubtes failed. Render the edit view.
render :edit
end
end
Secondly, you also need to ensure the attributes can be mass assigned such that the call to #user.update_attributes succeeds. Since you've not tagged your question with the appropriate Rails version, following is what you can do for Rails 3 and Rails 4:
Rails 3 - Define each attribute you want to mass assign as attr_accessible
Rails 4 - Permit parameters in controllers params.require(:user).permit(...).
Note that in your view you are not outputting the result of the helper text_field on this line:
<% builder.text_field :name %>
You need to use <%=...%> (note the equals = sign) in order to output the result of expressions within <%=...%>. This might have just been a typo here as you've done this correctly on all other elements. Replace the line with:
<%= builder.text_field :name %>
Also, suggest reading the "Action Controller Overview" of guides for details on Controllers.

At least one text_field must be filled

I have 3 text_fields in my view in which I enter students name. Of course you can enter one student or three students but I want to make sure that at least one student was provided because a project must have a student assigned to it.
Here is my view:
<%= form_for #project, url: projects_path do |f| %>
<p>
<%= f.label :name, "Name" %>
<%= f.text_field :name %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.fields_for :students do |s| %>
<%= s.label :name %>
<%= s.text_field :name %>
<% end %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.submit "Submit" %>
</p>
<% end %>
And new method from Projects controller:
def new
#project = Project.new()
3.times do
student = #project.students.build
end
end
What I want to achieve is to check if at least one student was provided and if not just show alert or disable submiting.
Edit
Models used in this project:
class Student < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :project
end
class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :students
accepts_nested_attributes_for :students
validate :validate_student_count
def validate_student_count
errors.add(:students, "at least one is required") if students.count < 1
end
end
Lots of very similar questions on the internet. Here's some examples: Validate the number of has_many items in Ruby on Rails and Validate that an object has one or more associated objects
Just add a custom validation rule as:
validate :validate_student_count
def validate_student_count
errors.add(:students, "at least one is required") if students.count < 1
end

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