How to customize a form/POST in Rails? - ruby-on-rails

Question

Hey guys, this has been plaguing me all week long. I am new to Rails, so please be gentle :)
My root problem is I'm trying to write a form_for Post that will use autocompletion on an input to tie the post to a Client. The database is looking for a client_id, not a text name.
So I have tried a custom validation that will lookup the text value and replace it with an id.
My Post.rb file has this:
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :client
attr_accessor :client_name
attr_accessible :client_name
before_validation_on_create :validate_client
def validate_client
self.client_id = 1 # just a test
end
def client_exists(passed_name)
return Client.where(:full_name => passed_name).first.blank?
end
end
But when I do this, none of the form variables get passed. The database gets all blank entries except for the client_id. How can I accomplish this? Why aren't my form variables being passed in? Many thanks in advance.
Edit 1: added create definition from posts_controller.rb
def create
#post = Post.new(params[:post])
respond_to do |format|
if #post.save
format.html {
redirect_to(posts_url) # redirect_to(#post, :notice => 'Post was successfully created.')
}
format.xml { render :xml => #post, :status => :created, :location => #post }
format.js
else
format.html { render :action => "new" }
format.xml { render :xml => #post.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
Edit 2: Thanks to #apneadiving, I changed the attr_accesible to include the other attributes, and that passes the POST entries into the db.
attr_accessible :client_id, :time, :content, :client_name
But when I change the validate_client function to search for the client_id,
def validate_client
passed_name = self.client_name
if client_exists(passed_name)
c = Client.where(:full_name => passed_name).first
self.client_id = c.id
else
errors.add_to_base "Error"
end
end
It always gives me this error:
Called id for nil, which would
mistakenly be 4 -- if you really
wanted the id of nil, use object_id
Edit 3: Here's my post form. I can't get the value of :client_name properly.
<%= form_for(#post) do |f| %>
<%= render 'common/error_messages', :object => f.object %>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label :content %><br />
<%= f.text_area :content, :size => "50x6" %>
</div>
<div class="field">
<div class="sub-field">
<%= f.label :client_name %><br />
<%= f.text_field :client_name, :size => "26" %>
</div>
<div class="sub-field">
<%= f.label :date %><br />
<%= f.text_field(:time, :class => 'date', :size => "10", :value => Date.today.strftime('%m/%d/%Y')) %>
</div>
<div class="sub-field">
<%= f.label :time %><br />
<%= f.time_select :time %>
</div>
</div>
<div class="actions clear">
<%= f.submit %>
</div>
<% end %>
Edit 4: The solution. I was struggling to get the :client_name due to my text being too far tabbed in (I was originally privatizing the function and then took the word "private" out). A modified version of #apneadiving's answer solved it for me!
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :client
attr_accessor :client_name
validate :validate_client
def validate_client
passed_name = self.client_name
unless client = Client.find_by_full_name(passed_name).blank?
self.client_id = Client.find_by_full_name(passed_name).id
else
errors.add(:client_name, "'#{passed_name}' cannot be found.")
end
end
end

Answer 1

Beware of your attr_acessible:
if you set one, you have to set all the variables that can be set through params. Otherwise they are protected against mass assignment
EDIT 1:
seems c.id is nil which means your client_exists function doesn't work as expected. Try the following (not tested):
def validate_client
unless client = Client.find_by_full_name(client_name).nil?
client_id = client.id
else
errors.add_to_base "Error"
end
end

Answer 2

Your client_exists code is wrong, it returns true if it doesn't exist.
Also, since your client_exists and the validation reuse the same query i would rewrite that a bit.
def validate_client
passed_name = self.client_name
existing_client = Client.where(:full_name => passed_name).first
if existing_client
self.client_id = existing_client.id
else
errors.add_to_base "Error"
end
end