Retain Search Form Data Ruby On Rails - ruby-on-rails

Question

Trying to build a search on my homepage with simple_form (Pretty much same as formtastic). The search works fine and im getting my results but after submission I want to retain the vales with what the user submitted.
I am using a namespace for my form so how can I retain the data for the form. Here is some code which may help.
Controller
def index
#results = Property.search(params[:search])
end
View
%h1 Search Form
= simple_form_for(:search) do |f|
= f.input :location, :as => :select, :collection => Location.all.asc(:name)
= f.input :type, :collection => PropertyType.all.asc(:name)
= f.input :bedrooms, :collection => 1..10,
%p.box
= f.button :submit
-if #results
%h1 Search Results
.results
- #results.each do |property|
.result
%h1= property.title
Within the Index controller I have tried all sorts of things ie
#search = params[:search]
But each time I try something the search breaks.
What am I doing wrong ?
Hope you can advise

Answer 1

One approach is to do as Xavier Holt suggested, and pass in values to each input. The simpleform doco suggests:
= f.input :remember_me, :input_html => { :value => '1' }
The other approach is to have simpleform do it for you. SimpleForm will automatically populate the fields with values if you give it something like an activerecord object.
In this case, that means creating a model object:
class PropertySearchCriteria
attr_accessor :location, :type, :bedrooms
def initialize(options)
self.location = options[:location]
self.type = options[:bedrooms]
self.bedrooms = options[:bedrooms]
end
end
Then, change your controller:
def index
#property_search_criteria = PropertySearchCriteria.new(params[:search])
#results = Property.search(#property_search_criteria)
end
(you'll have to change the Property.search method as well)
Then, change your simple_form_for:
= simple_form_for(:search, #property_search_criteria) do |f|
And if you do all that, and get the stars to align just right, then simpleform will pre-populate the form fields all by itself. You may have to add some stuff to PropertySearchCriteria to get simpleform to be properly happy.
This is a lot of stuffing around just to get the values showing up, but it'll keep you sane if you need to add validations.

Answer 2

I'm doing something similar in the app I'm working on (I'm not using formtastic, but this should be at least very close to something that works for you). I got around it by making sure #search was a hash in the controller:
#search = params[:search] || {}
And then using #search[:key] as the :value option in all my search inputs (There's a chance you'll need to set #search.default = '' to get this working):
<%= text_field_tag :name, :value => #search[:name] %>
And that's all it took. As my app is getting more complicated and AJAXy, I've been thinking of moving the search parameters into the session information, which you might want to do now to stay ahead, but if you're just looking for a simple solution, this worked great for me.
Hope this helps!

Answer 3

you can try storing your parameters in session like so:
def index
#results = Property.search(params[:search])
store_search
end
def store_search
session[:search] = params[:search]
end
just be sure when you are done with the parameters that you clean them up
...
clear_search if session[:search]
def clear_search
session[:search] = nil
end