Ruby on Rails: Submitting an array in a form - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have a model that has an attribute that is an Array. What's the proper way for me to populate that attribute from a form submission?
I know having a form input with a field whose name includes brackets creates a hash from the input. Should I just be taking that and stepping through it in the controller to massage it into an array?
Example to make it less abstract:
class Article
serialize :links, Array
end
The links variable takes the form of a an array of URLs, i.e. [["http://www.google.com"], ["http://stackoverflow.com"]]
When I use something like the following in my form, it creates a hash:
<%= hidden_field_tag "article[links][#{url}]", :track, :value => nil %>
The resultant hash looks like this:
"links" => {"http://www.google.com" => "", "http://stackoverflow.com" => ""}
If I don't include the url in the name of the link, additional values clobber each other:
<%= hidden_field_tag "article[links]", :track, :value => url %>
The result looks like this: "links" => "http://stackoverflow.com"

Answer 1

If your html form has input fields with empty square brackets, then they will be turned into an array inside params in the controller.
# Eg multiple input fields all with the same name:
<input type="textbox" name="course[track_codes][]" ...>
# will become the Array
params["course"]["track_codes"]
# with an element for each of the input fields with the same name
Added:
Note that the rails helpers are not setup to do the array trick auto-magically. So you may have to create the name attributes manually. Also, checkboxes have their own issues if using the rails helpers since the checkbox helpers create additional hidden fields to handle the unchecked case.

Answer 2

= simple_form_for #article do |f|
= f.input_field :name, multiple: true
= f.input_field :name, multiple: true
= f.submit

Answer 3

TL;DR version of HTML [] convention:
Array:
<input type="textbox" name="course[track_codes][]", value="a">
<input type="textbox" name="course[track_codes][]", value="b">
<input type="textbox" name="course[track_codes][]", value="c">
Params received:
{ course: { track_codes: ['a', 'b', 'c'] } }
Hash
<input type="textbox" name="course[track_codes][x]", value="a">
<input type="textbox" name="course[track_codes][y]", value="b">
<input type="textbox" name="course[track_codes][z]", value="c">
Params received:
{ course: { track_codes: { x: 'a', y: 'b', z: 'c' } }

Answer 4

I've also found out that if pass your input helper like this you will get an array of courses each one with its own attributes.
# Eg multiple input fields all with the same name:
<input type="textbox" name="course[][track_codes]" ...>
# will become the Array
params["course"]
# where you can get the values of all your attributes like this:
params["course"].each do |course|
course["track_codes"]
end

Answer 5

I just set up a solution using jquery taginput:
http://xoxco.com/projects/code/tagsinput/
I wrote a custom simple_form extension
# for use with: http://xoxco.com/projects/code/tagsinput/
class TagInput < SimpleForm::Inputs::Base
def input
#builder.text_field(attribute_name, input_html_options.merge(value: object.value.join(',')))
end
end
A coffeescrpt snippet:
$('input.tag').tagsInput()
And a tweak to my controller, which sadly has to be slightly specific:
#user = User.find(params[:id])
attrs = params[:user]
if #user.some_field.is_a? Array
attrs[:some_field] = attrs[:some_field].split(',')
end

Answer 6

I had a similar issue, but wanted to let the user input a series of comma separated elements as the value for the array.
My migration uses rails new ability (or is it postrges' new ability?) to have an array as the column type
add_column :articles, :links, :string, array: true, default: []
the form can then take this input
<%= text_field_tag "article[links][]", #article.links %>
and it means the controller can operate pretty smoothly as follows
def create
split_links
Article.create(article_params)
end
private
def split_links
params[:article][:links] = params[:article][:links].first.split(",").map(&:strip)
end
params.require(:article).permit(links: [])
Now the user can input as many links as they like, and the form behaves properly on both create and update. And I can still use the strong params.

Answer 7

For those who use simple form, you may consider this solution. Basically need to set up your own input and use it as :array. Then you would need to handle input in your controller level.
#inside lib/utitilies
class ArrayInput < SimpleForm::Inputs::Base
def input
#builder.text_field(attribute_name, input_html_options.merge!({value: object.premium_keyword.join(',')}))
end
end
#inside view/_form
...
= f.input :premium_keyword, as: :array, label: 'Premium Keyword (case insensitive, comma seperated)'
#inside controller
def update
pkw = params[:restaurant][:premium_keyword]
if pkw.present?
pkw = pkw.split(", ")
params[:restaurant][:premium_keyword] = pkw
end
if #restaurant.update_attributes(params[:restaurant])
redirect_to admin_city_restaurants_path, flash: { success: "You have successfully edited a restaurant"}
else
render :edit
end
end
In your case just change :premium_keyword to the your array field

Answer 8

I had some trouble editing the array after implementing this for my new.html.erb, so I'll drop my solution to that problem here:
Edit a model property of type array with Rails form?