Is there a way to capture the querystring and send that along as part of a form post? I'm using Rails 2.3.5 and my user is on a page that has multiple querystring parameters. On this page, they are going to submit a form. Inside the action that receives the post, I want to know what those querystring parameters were. Obviously, they are not sent as part of the post. So I need the actual form values, plus the querystring params that were on the page when the user submitted the form.
I'm sure I could write some nasty javascript that would shove the querystring params into hidden fields on the form so they would be available, but that seems ugly. My Googling hasn't turned up much, which makes me wonder if I'm just going about this all wrong. To make matters worse, I'm a Rails newbie.
Appreciate any pointers or ideas to get me going in the right direction.
A friend of mine showed me what I believe is an easier way:
<% form_tag params.merge(:action=>"someAction") do %>
Merging params into the hash necessary for making the form_tag did the trick perfectly.
The preferred way would be to use hidden fields. I haven't tried it, but I think you can specify additional query string parameters within the *_path or *_url helpers. Something like:
<% form_for(#post,
:url => post_path(#post, :foo => 'foo', :bar => 'bar')) do |f| %>
...
<% end %>
<% form_tag params.merge(:action=>"someAction") do %>
- No route matches [POST]
Use hidden_field_tag if you're using a GET request.
In our case we were using a simple form with a select for setting the Per Page values for pagination. We found that any existing GET params were cleared when submitting this form. To fix this we used hidden_field_tags in our form.
Inside of your form, just set hidden_field_tags for the existing GET params, like so:
form_content = request.query_parameters.collect do |key, value|
hidden_field_tag key, value
end
This will ensure that your existing params persist.
Related
I want to filter results by category and I'd like to use the GET method instead of POST. However, I am doing something wrong that I can't figure out: the form's action does not match the defined route, so it triggers a different method.
Here's the form:
<div>
<%= form_tag '/expenses/search', method: 'get' do %>
<%= select_tag 'category_name', options_from_collection_for_select(Category.order(:name), :name, :name) %>
<%= submit_tag 'search' %>
<% end %>
</div>
Sending this form produces an URL like the following:
http://localhost:3000/expenses/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&category_name=Alcohol&commit=Search
However the route is defined like this:
resources :expenses
get 'expenses/search/:category_name', to: 'gastos#search_by_category'
This means the URL where the form is submitted isn't the one I'm trying to submit it to. It's matched with the one corresponding to the show method, as you can imagine.
How can I submit the form to the matching URL? What is the usual way to deal with this situation?
You didn't set your route properly as it has unrecognized :category_name segment. Your route should be defined like this:
get 'expenses/search', to: 'gastos#search_by_category`
If your route is nested on expenses I recommend to use block function
resources :expenses do
collection do
match 'search', to: 'gastos#search_by_category`, via: :get
end
end
Is a good practice to use rials routes helper, try to avoid put routes with plain text, in your case will be:
<%= form_tag search_expenses_path, method: 'get' do %>
<%= select_tag 'category_name', options_from_collection_for_select(Category.order(:name), :name, :name) %>
<%= submit_tag 'search' %>
<% end %>
Furthermore, don't confuse 'query params' with 'url params'
http//www.host.com/profile/12?type='json'
In this example '12' is a url param and is expresed with :(nameofparam) in routes files but 'type' is a query param that are not expresed on rails routes.
It's supposed to work like that, since it's client-side.
You see, parameters are sent by the browser, that (in general) has no understanding of how your site routing works inside. Submitting a form, in general, requires an URL (to submit params to) and a set of parameters, which in case with GET typically* gets passed as a query string.
The browser will eventually hit the exact route that is specified in form's URL and supply all the form's parameters in a query string appended to the end in usual format:
...?category=stuff
You simply cannot expect the browser to hit a different route (which query string is not part of) with one form just because it has a different value in one of the <input>s.
* I've never actually seen this done differently, but I didn't find a firm requirement of this either.
Do you really want pretty search links that badly?
You could try to circumvent this by placing a "prettifying redirection" – direct search queries to that action, but do not perform search there: instead use the received parameters to construct a route and redirect your user to it.
def search_redirect
redirect_to whatever_search_path(category: params[:category])
end
That would trigger the route helper to build the pretty adress that conforms to the defined routes.
Too hacky?
Well, you could go with submitting a form through JavaScript and alter the parameters and URL request in any way you want. But this is still hacky and I wouldn't do either. Query string in search requests looks perfectly fine to me.
I'm trying to link the input of a form to a specific action in my rails app.
Currently if I go to www.myapp.com/check/:idNumber, I'll be able to trigger the action just fine (which means routes is setup properly?). This action is basically a function call to a ruby/rails script with the parameter "idNumber" being passed to it. If the function is successful, it would return a newly created "Person" object and nil otherwise. This is different than the standard new operation as it determines the the attributes based on some information that it obtained from a database somewhere else.
Rake routes does give me the following:
check /check/:idNumber(.:format) person#check {:id=>/\d+/}
What I'm having trouble implementing is the form itself.
<%= form_tag("/check", :method => "get") do %>
<%= text_field_tag(:idNumber) %>
<% end %>
Controller action:
def check
regCheck = RegCheck.new
#person = regCheck.check_id(params[:idNumber])
if #person.name == nil
redirect_to root_path
end
end
submitting the form above would bring me to myapp.com/check?utf8=✓&idNumber=1234 instead. Can someone tell me what am I doing wrong?
I believe that using the check_path helper that is generated from the routes file is your best bet.
The form should look like this then.
<%= form_tag(check_path) do %>
<%= text_field_tag(:idNumber) %>
<% end %>
Rails forms can be finicky, especially when trying to build really customized forms.
This line
= form_for [#object]
Determines where the form goes, as well as the object that is being implemented. If you want to route the form to a different place, you can user the :url option. This options determines the path of the form, however you must keep in mind that the method is determined by the #object. If it is a new object, the method will be POST, an existing object will use a PUT method.
Let's suppose you want to update an existing object, but you want to send in data for a new object belonging to the existing object. That would look like
= form_for [#object], :as => #child_object, :url => my_optional_custom_path do |f|
# etc...
This generates a form sending a PUT request to the custom url (or the update path for #object if no custom url is supplied. The PUT request is sent with the parameter params[:child_object].
Hopefully this helps!
Best,
-Brian
I don't think it's possible the way you're trying.. The URL for the form is created before the user inputs any data.. So you need to remove the :idNumber from your routing..
If you do you get the following route:
check /check(.:format) person#check
Because the regex is removed now, you need to do this in you're controller:
def check
# Make sure ID is digits only
idNumber = params[:idNumber].gsub(/[^\d]/, '')
regCheck = RegCheck.new
#person = regCheck.check_id(idNumber)
if #person.name == nil
redirect_to root_path
end
end
You're form is allright, but you may want to use check_path like TheBinaryhood suggests..
If you really want it to be check/:idNumber you may also be able to submit the form to another action and redirect it to the right path from there..
I am new to Rails and don't quite understand what I'm supposed to do. Let's say, for example, I want a textbox containing a string to be passed into another controller (another page?) when the user clicks a button. How would I go about doing that?
Functions of controllers are pages, correct? Can a function take parameters just like a normal method? (E.g. sum(x,y))
For complete information, check out Rails Form helpers. Basically, you give the form_tag method a path which points to the controller and the action that you want to handle the form submission. For example,
<%= form_tag(search_path, :method => "get") do %>
<%= label_tag(:q, "Search for:") %>
<%= text_field_tag(:q) %>
<%= submit_tag("Search") %>
<% end %>
Here, the action and controller that search_path points to (defined in your routes) will receive the form submission and the value from the text field.
Your action in the controller IS a function, but it will not receive the value from the form submission as a parameter to the function. Instead, you will access it through the params hash. In the example above, you can access the value from the text field as
params[:q]
What are you doing with the string? Storing it? Using it as a parameter on another page?
I suggest you take a look at the Getting Started Guide, go through it, and pay particular attention to the What is Rails? section, where it explains MVC architecture and REST (Representational State Transfer.)
There are dozens of other Rails tutuorials out there, I'm sure if you searched this site you'd find many questions like this one:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2794297/how-to-learn-ruby-on-rails-as-a-complete-programming-beginner
Functions of controllers are pages, correct? Can a function take parameters just like a normal method?
Functions of controllers are pages if that's the route you've set up in your routes.rb configuration file. I suggest you run through some tutorials to understand what Rails is for and how it works.
I have a form around a list of items. I would like to check a radio button on the list and then, after clicking 'Submit', go to the 'Edit' page of the selected item.
The problem is that if I am writing something like
<%= form_tag edit_item_path %>
but Rails complains that I didn't provided a proper id, which in turn is being set on my radio buttons as the following:
<%= radio_button 'item', 'id', item.id %>
So - how would I send a form with a selected id to a given action?
Doing it the way you describe would not work, since edit_item_path by default RESTful path definitions is a GET request. You are trying to make it a POST request. If you would like to stick to the RESTful way of doing things I would recommend simply looping through your items and provide links to edit, since you are planning to edit them one at a time anyways. Otherwise, you would have to define a new route if you would prefer doing things within the form with radio buttons. If you are, than you would add something like this to your config/routes.rb: (assuming you are using rails 2.3.x)
map.resources :items, :member =>{:edit_radio_form => :post}
Than your form would look like this:
<%= form_tag edit_radio_form_item_path do |form| %>
And it should work, but it not the right way of doing things for several reasons, the most anoying one of which is that you won't get a full URL on your edit page because you got there with a POST request, so if you refresh the page, your item id param will be gone and will produce an error.
I'm trying to create a simple search form in Rails, but I think I'm missing something.
I have a named route for search:
map.search ":first_name/:last_name", :controller => "home", :action => "search"
I'm trying to use that in my search form:
<% form_tag(search_path, :method => 'get') do %>
<%= text_field_tag(:first_name) %>
<%= text_field_tag(:last_name) %>
<%= submit_tag("Search") %>
<% end %>
But when I load up the search form I get an ActionController::RoutingError:
search_url failed to generate from {:action=>"search", :controller=>"home"} - you may have ambiguous routes, or you may need to supply additional parameters for this route. content_url has the following required parameters: [:first_name, :last_name] - are they all satisfied?
What am I missing? I thought the fields defined in my form would be automatically linked up with my route parameters. :-/
Update:
I understand that search_path is generated before the form is displayed now, so it can't be updated. Obvious in hindsight!
I changed my routes:
map.search 'search', :controller => "home", :action => "search"
map.name ':first_name/:last_name', :controller => "home", :action => "name"
And now the search action just does:
def search
redirect_to name_path(params)
end
It all works a treat! The main goal here was getting that URL from the name named route as result of doing a search. Thanks guys!
form_for generates form and it has to have specified all parameters that are needed to create search_path, so it should look like:
<% form_tag(search_path, :firstname => 'some_text', :lastname => 'some_text', :method => 'get') do %>
or at least something like this. HTML tag form has parameter action='/some/url' and that's why you have to specify all parameters for search_path. But the above example won't work as you expected.
So what you can do?
Create empty form that has action='/' and with js replace it with content of your input text fields before submitting.
Create another route, on example /search that recives parameters from submit and then redirects to correct path.
Probably there is also some better ways to do it ;)
First, search_path is actually a method, which takes a hash of options. It is this method which should receive :first_name and :last_name.
Second, a browser can only submit form parameters as the body of a POST request, or as query string parameters (for any kind of request method). So there's unfortunately no way a browser's native submit function can generate that kind of URL.
Another way of thinking of it: What you're doing here is filling the form tag's action attribute with an URL. Rails needs a complete URL as you're building the form. So all parameters in your route need to be specified when the form helper is called, rather than at the next POST request.
So unfortunately, what you're trying to do is not possible in a normal Rails application.
(If you really want to, you might be able to pull it off by writing your own form helpers and a bit of Javascript to replace the browser's native submit function. The Javascript would then construct that URL based on the form fields. I'd argue against it, though.)