I've started to work on old project with new tools. This time - Rails on Ruby. I managed to make some progress, and now i want to improve one element of my code.
Whole project is about bugtracking with full history search of all tracked bugs. Now i'm on stage where user is entering bugs. Every bug belong to table which belongs to projects.
Only problem - now - is autocompletion of table name when i'm using completely new name (with tables that are already present in database it's working just fine, fills table_id in Bug entry).
Part of view responsible for entering (or selecting from existing) table looks like this:
<div class="control-group">
<%= f.label :table_name, :class => 'control-label' %>
<div class="controls">
<%= f.autocomplete_field :table_name, autocomplete_table_name_bugs_path %>
</div>
</div>
Nothing unusual. This one goes to the model (Bug.rb)
class Bug < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :bugid, :fixdate, :fixnote, :fixstate_id, :milestone, :newtarget, :notes, :oldtarget, :project_id, :bugreason, :reason_id, :regressiondate, :regressionstate_id, :source, :stringid, :table_id
belongs_to :project
belongs_to :table
belongs_to :reason
belongs_to :state
def table_name
table.name if table
end
#def table_name=(name)
# self.table = Table.find_or_create_by_name(name) unless name.blank?
#end
end
No validation for now as you can see. table_name=(name) commented as it's apparently doing nothing in my code.
This is working with bugs controller (bugs_controller.rb)
def create
if params[:bug][:table_id].nil?
if Table.find_or_create_by_name(params[:bug][:table_name])
params[:bug][:table_id] = Table.find_by_name(params[:bug][:table_name]).id
params[:bug].delete :table_name
end
end
#bug = Bug.new(params[:bug])
respond_to do |format|
if #bug.save
format.html { redirect_to bugs_path, notice: 'Bug was successfully created.' }
format.json { render json: #bug, status: :created, location: #bug }
else
format.html { render action: "new" }
format.json { render json: #bug.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
I put here only part responsible for saving new bugs, i'll manage to handle update part when i do this part right.
What i want to improve is first part. Now it's responsible not only for changing table_name to table_id but for creation of new table if it doesn't exist. I'm aware that this part should be handled by model, but i've no idea how to do that, could use some help.
Another part, as btw. is my dropdown menu where user can select active project. It's handled by partial:
<% #projects.each do |project| %>
<% if project.id == session[:current_project].to_i %>
<li class="disabled"><%= link_to project.name, '#' %></li>
<% else %>
<li><%= link_to project.name, choose_project_path(project.id) %></li>
<% end %>
<% end %>
But it works fine only when used from projects controller. How - by the book - i can handle this from other controllers? To be exact, i want it working same way in whole project.
For now i'm handling it by snippet in every controller, but i'm pretty sure that RoR gods are not happy with me for that.
before_filter :projects
def projects
#projects = Project.all
end
How it should be done in proper way? :)
So i managed to move logic from controller to model. Also, it's saving all data i need - table_id to bugs table and project_id (stored in session) to tables table when creating new table.
So part of form render is not changed:
<div class="control-group">
<%= f.label :table_name, :class => 'control-label' %>
<div class="controls">
<%= f.autocomplete_field :table_name, autocomplete_table_name_bugs_path %>
</div>
</div>
Model now looks like this:
class Bug < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :table_name, :bugid, :fixdate, :fixnote, :fixstate_id, :milestone, :newtarget, :notes, :oldtarget, :project_id, :bugreason, :reason_id, :regressiondate, :regressionstate_id, :source, :stringid, :table_id
belongs_to :project
belongs_to :table
belongs_to :reason
belongs_to :state
def table_name
table.name if table
end
def table_name=(name)
self.table = Table.find_or_create_by_name(name, project_id: self.project_id ) unless name.blank?
end
end
So only change is uncommenting table_name= method and adding project_id to creation of new table (and lack of project_id was the reason it didn't work earlier).
Controller looks like this:
def create
#bug = Bug.new(params[:bug])
#bug.project_id = session[:current_project]
respond_to do |format|
if #bug.save
format.html { redirect_to bugs_path, notice: 'Bug was successfully created.' }
format.json { render json: #bug, status: :created, location: #bug }
else
format.html { render action: "new" }
format.json { render json: #bug.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
It's working like charm. Still i've question remaining, but will post it as separate one.
Related
I'm currently trying to create a survey which will use questions that are stored in a table. I've read nested model form part 1 from rails casts however i'm not getting anywhere as the questions are not displaying in the survey.
I have three tables, one tables has the text of the questions, another table keeps the record of who entered the survey and a third table which keeps the answers from a user for the questions.
variable table:
name: varchar
id: integer
report table
employee name: varchar
date: date
id: integer
report_variable table
question_id
report_id
answer
Code i modified for reports/new:
# GET /reports/new
# GET /reports/new.json
def new
#report = Report.new
#variable = #report.variable.build #dont know what to do here, gives an error with report_id
respond_to do |format|
format.html # new.html.erb
format.json { render json: #report }
end
end
modified report/_form.html.erb
<div >
<%= f.fields_for :variable do |builder| %>
<%= render variable_fields, :f => builder %>
<% end %>
</div>
created report/_variable_fields.html.erb
<p>
<%= f.label :name %>
<%= f.text_field :name, :class => 'text_field' %>
<p>
model for report_variable
class ReportVariable < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :report_id, :value, :variable_id
has_and_belongs to many :reports
has_and_belongs to many :variables
end
model for report
class Report < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :employeeName
has_many :report_variable
has_many :variable
accepts_nested_attributes_for :report_variable
accepts_nested_attributes_for :variable
end
Sorry if it's a simple question, im pretty new to rails.
Welcome to Rails!
I think the simple answer is the fields aren't showing up because there aren't any nested records. You can probably get around that by uncommenting the variable line as you have it:
def new
#report = Report.new
#report.variables.build #this line creates 1 new empty variable, unsaved.
respond_to do |format|
format.html # new.html.erb
format.json { render json: #report }
end
end
If you want more than one variable, call something like:
3.times { #report.variables.build }
That way the #report object you're placing in the form helper will have three variables on it. This should get you moving again, the harder thing is going to be adding ajax addition / removal of variables, but if you know how many there are in advance you don't have to deal with that.
Good luck!
I have a Rails app using a "has_many :through" relationship. I have 3 tables/models. They are Employee, Store, and StoreEmployee. An employee can work for one or more stores. On the Store view (show.html.erb), I want to include a form to add an employee to the store. If the employee doesn't already exist, it is added to the Employees table. If it does already exist, it is just added to the store.
Here are the model definitions:
# models
class Employee < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :store_employees
has_many :stores, :through => :store_employees
attr_accessible :email, :name
end
class Store < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :store_employees
has_many :employees, :through => :store_employees
attr_accessible :address, :name
end
class StoreEmployee < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :store
belongs_to :employee
attr_accessible :employee_id, :store_id
end
Using the rails console, I can prove the data models are working correctly, like so:
emp = Employee.first
str = Store.first
str.employees << emp # add the employee to the store
str.employees # shows the employees that work at the store
emp.stores # shows the stores where the employee works
I have also updated my routes.rb to nest the employees resource under the stores resource like this:
resources :stores do
resources :employees
end
Edit: I also added the resources :employees as "unnested" resource. So that now looks like this:
resources :stores do
resources :employees
end
resources :employees
So, in the store controller's show action, I think it should look like this:
def show
#store = Store.find(params[:id])
#employee = #store.employees.build # creating an empty Employee for the form
respond_to do |format|
format.html # show.html.erb
format.json { render json: #store }
end
end
And here is the store's show.html.erb including the form to add an employee:
<p id="notice"><%= notice %></p>
<p>
<b>Name:</b>
<%= #store.name %>
</p>
<p>
<b>Address:</b>
<%= #store.address %>
</p>
<%= form_for([#store, #employee]) do |f| %>
<%= f.label :name %>
<%= f.text_field :name %>
<%= f.label :email %>
<%= f.text_field :email %>
<%= f.submit "Add Employee" %>
<% end %>
<%= link_to 'Edit', edit_store_path(#store) %> |
<%= link_to 'Back', stores_path %>
I get this error message when I click the 'Add employee' button:
NoMethodError in EmployeesController#create
undefined method `employee_url' for #
So, what I am I missing? I think it has to do with the 'form_for' but I'm not sure. I am not sure why the EmployeesController#create is getting called. Am I doing something wrong with the routes.rb?
I don't know where the logic for adding the employee should go. In the Employees controller? Store Controller?
### Update
Here is the updated create method in the EmployeesController. I included the recommendation from Mischa's answer.
def create
#store = Store.find(params[:store_id])
#employee = #store.employees.build(params[:employee])
respond_to do |format|
if #employee.save
format.html { redirect_to #store, notice: 'Employee was successfully created.' }
format.json { render json: #employee, status: :created, location: #employee }
else
format.html { render action: "new" }
format.json { render json: #employee.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
After making this change, I successfully saved the Employee but the store_employees association record is not created. I have no idea why. Here is the output in my terminal when creating a record. Note the store is SELECTed and the Employee is INSERTed but that is all. No store_employees record anywhere:
Started POST "/stores/1/employees" for 127.0.0.1 at 2012-10-10
13:06:18 -0400 Processing by EmployeesController#create as HTML
Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓",
"authenticity_token"=>"LZrAXZ+3Qc08hqQT8w0MhLYsNNSG29AkgCCMkEJkOf4=",
"employee"=>{"name"=>"betty", "email"=>"betty#kitchen.com"},
"commit"=>"Add Employee", "store_id"=>"1"} Store Load (0.4ms)
SELECT "stores".* FROM "stores" WHERE "stores"."id" = ? LIMIT 1
[["id", "1"]] (0.1ms) begin transaction SQL (13.9ms) INSERT
INTO "employees" ("created_at", "email", "name", "updated_at") VALUES
(?, ?, ?, ?) [["created_at", Wed, 10 Oct 2012 17:06:18 UTC +00:00],
["email", "betty#kitchen.com"], ["name", "betty"], ["updated_at", Wed,
10 Oct 2012 17:06:18 UTC +00:00]] (1.3ms) commit transaction
Redirected to http://localhost:3000/stores/1 Completed 302 Found in
23ms (ActiveRecord: 15.6ms)
The problem is caused by this snippet from your EmployeesController#create method:
redirect_to #employee
This tries to use employee_url, but that does not exist, because you have nested the employees resource in your routes file. Solution is to also add the "unnested" resource:
resources :stores do
resources :employees
end
resources :employees
Or simply redirect to a different location. E.g. back to StoresController#show.
By the way, the default scaffolding won't do what you expect it to do: it won't create an employee that is related to a store. For that you have to rewrite it somewhat:
def create
#store = Store.find(params[:store_id])
#employee = #store.employees.build(params[:employee])
respond_to do |format|
if #employee.save
format.html { redirect_to #employee, notice: 'Employee was successfully created.' }
format.json { render json: #employee, status: :created, location: #employee }
else
format.html { render action: "new" }
format.json { render json: #employee.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
I am having trouble when it comes to saving/creating 2 objects at once and associating them to one another. Currently I am doing it in a 'hackish' sort of way by not using nested forms and just passing the parameters for both objects separately (from the view.) Then I connect them in the controller here is my code:
Models
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
has_one :product
accepts_nested_attributes_for :product, :allow_destroy => true
end
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
belongs_to :post
end
View
<%= form_for(#post) do |f| %>
<div id="post_field">
<%= f.text_area :content %>
</div>
<div id="post_link_previewer" class="clearfix">
<%= fields_for :product do |prod| %>
<%= prod.text_field :name %><br />
<%= prod.text_area :description, :rows => 2 %><br />
<%= prod.text_field :image_url %><br />
<%= prod.text_field :original_url %>
<% end %>
</div>
<div id="submit" class="clearfix">
<%= f.submit "Post" %>
</div>
<% end %>
PostsController
def create
#user = current_user
#post = #user.posts.create(params[:post])
#product = Product.create(params[:product])
#post.product_id = #product.id
respond_to do |format|
if #post.save
format.html { redirect_to(root_path, :notice => 'Post was successfully created.') }
format.xml { render :xml => #post, :status => :created, :location => #post }
else
format.html { render :action => "new" }
format.xml { render :xml => #post.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
So when a user makes a post, they can attach a 'product' to that post if they want. The current way I am doing it makes a lot of sense. When I looked at nested form tutorials and see them using build methods I start to get a little confused as to what is going on. Can you help me understand the best way of linking these 2 objects upon create? Is it best to use nested form fields? I feel the current way I am doing it isn't as efficient as it should be.
Yes, you should use nested forms. There is a reason as to why they were built. They ease the process of managing associations and creating nested objects in a single go.
The build method builds an object (it calls the .new() method for the object) and then you can use it.
I advise you to start with a simple example of nested forms and play around with it for an hour or two. This way, you'll have a better understanding of what's happening underneath.
I think, in this case, self-learning by playing would help you a lot, instead of someone just telling you why nested forms are better.
To get you started, refer to nested-attributes-in-rails.
I started the question differently, about a collection_select, but I found out that is not the problem.
This particular model won't save any data at all. It just ignores the values in the parameters. I can only save new records with NULL values (except for the timestamp fields).
See my comment for my latest try to fix it.
I have generated a few models with the handy scaffold command. Now I have tried to change a textbox to a collection_select for linking the new entity to the correct related one.
Using rails 3.1RC4 (hopefully this is not a bug).
In the _form.html.erb I use the following code:
<div class="field">
<%= f.label :category_id %><br />
<%= f.collection_select(:category_id, Admin::Category.all, :id, :name) %>
</div>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label :name %><br />
<%= f.text_field :name %>
...all other items...
<div class="actions">
<%= f.submit %>
</div>
After I click the submit button I receive error messages. It says that the name and permalink do not comply to the validation. I don't understand however, because in the logfiles I find this:
Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", "authenticity_token"=>"my token is here", "admin_branche"=>{"category_id"=>"3", "name"=>"Verzekeraars", "permalink"=>"verzekeraars", "visible"=>"1"}, "commit"=>"Create Branche"}
To me it seems that the params contain all the needed values.
For the sake of completeness I will post my create method and model below.
So far I have tried switching back and forth between collection_select and f.coll... with no success. The current setup seems most appropriate to me, based on the logs.
I have also googled a lot, but haven't been able to find the answer. Question 2280106 on this site looks the same, but it had to do with attr_accessible which I have commented out in the model (I restarted the server afterwards and retried, just to be sure).
Help is much appreciated!
branche.rb:
class Admin::Branche < ActiveRecord::Base
# attr_accessible :name, :permalink
#relationships
has_many :courses, :as => :parent
belongs_to :category
#validations
validates :name, :presence => true, :length => {:maximum => 255}
validates :permalink, :presence => true, :length => { :within => 4..25 }
end
create action in the controller:
def create
#admin_branch = Admin::Branche.new(params[:admin_branch])
respond_to do |format|
if #admin_branch.save
format.html { redirect_to #admin_branch, notice: 'Branche was successfully created.' }
format.json { render json: #admin_branch, status: :created, location: #admin_branch }
else
format.html { render action: "new" }
format.json { render json: #admin_branch.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
In the controller, you're doing this:
#admin_branch = Admin::Branche.new(params[:admin_branch])
You should do this:
#admin_branch = Admin::Branche.new(params[:admin_branche])
If you look at the request parameters, the attributes are under "admin_branche", not "admin_branch".
I think that should solve your problems, if not, please let us know.
If you have problems with the generated inflections, you can completely customize them in the config/initializers/inflections.rb
just add something like this:
ActiveSupport::Inflector.inflections do |inflect|
inflect.irregular 'branch', 'branches'
end
Fairly new to Rails 3 and have been Googling every which way to no avail to solve the following problem, with most tutorials stopping short of handling errors.
I have created a Rails 3 project with multiple content types/models, such as Articles, Blogs, etc. Each content type has comments, all stored in a single Comments table as a nested resource and with polymorphic associations. There is only one action for comments, the 'create' action, because there is no need for the show, etc as it belongs to the parent content type and should simply redisplay that page on submit.
Now I have most of this working and comments submit and post just fine, but the last remaining issue is displaying errors when the user doesn't fill out a required field. If the fields aren't filled out, it should return to the parent page and display validation errors like Rails typically does with an MVC.
The create action of my Comments controller looks like this, and this is what I first tried...
def create
#commentable = find_commentable
#comment = #commentable.comments.build(params[:comment])
respond_to do |format|
if #comment.save
format.html { redirect_to(#commentable, :notice => 'Comment was successfully created.') }
else
format.html { redirect_to #commentable }
format.xml { render :xml => #commentable.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
When you fill nothing out and submit the comments form, the page does redirect back to it's appropriate parent, but no flash or nothing is displayed. Now I figured out why, from what I understand, the flash won't persist on a redirect_to, only on a render. Now here's where the trouble lies.
There is only the 'create' action in the comment controller, so I needed to point the render towards 'blogs/show' (NOTE: I know this isn't polymorphic, but once I get this working I'll worry about that then). I tried this in the "else" block of the above code...
else
format.html { render 'blogs/show' }
format.xml { render :xml => #commentable.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }
end
Anyway, when I try to submit an invalid comment on a blog, I get an error message saying "Showing [...]/app/views/blogs/show.html.erb where line #1 raised: undefined method `title' for nil:NilClass."
Looking at the URL, I think I know why...instead of directing to /blogs/the-title-of-my-article (I'm using friendly_id), it's going to /blogs/the-title-of-my-article/comments. I figure that extra "comments" is throwing the query off and returning it nil.
So how can I get the page to render without throwing that extra 'comments' on there? Or is there a better way to go about this issue?
Not sure if it matters or helps, but the route.rb for comments / blogs looks like this...
resources :blogs, :only => [:show] do
resources :comments, :only => [:create]
end
I've been plugging away at this over the last few weeks and I think I've finally pulled it off, errors/proper direction on render, filled out fields remain filled in and all. I did consider AJAX, however I would prefer to do it with graceful degradation if at all possible.
In addition, I admit I had to go about this a very hacky-sack way, including pulling in a way to pluralize the parent model to render the appropriate content type's show action, and at this stage I need the code to simply work, not necessarily look pretty doing it.
I KNOW it can be refactored way better, and I hope to do so as I get better with Rails. Or, anyone else who thinks they can improve this is welcomed to have at it. Anyway, here is all my code, just wanted to share back and hope this helps someone in the same scenario.
comments_controller.rb
class CommentsController < ApplicationController
# this include will bring all the Text Helper methods into your Controller
include ActionView::Helpers::TextHelper
def create
#commentable = find_commentable
#comment = #commentable.comments.build(params[:comment])
respond_to do |format|
if #comment.save
format.html { redirect_to(#commentable, :notice => 'Comment was successfully created.') }
else
# Transform class of commentable into pluralized content type
content_type = find_commentable.class.to_s.downcase.pluralize
# Choose appropriate instance variable based on #commentable, rendered page won't work without it
if content_type == 'blogs'
#blog = #commentable
elsif content_type == 'articles'
#article = #commentable
end
format.html { render "#{content_type}/show" }
format.xml { render :xml => #commentable.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
private
# Gets the ID/type of parent model, see Comment#create in controller
def find_commentable
params.each do |name, value|
if name =~ /(.+)_id$/
return $1.classify.constantize.find(value)
end
end
end
end
articles_controller.rb
class ArticlesController < ApplicationController
def show
#article = Article.where(:status => 1).find_by_cached_slug(params[:id])
#comment = Comment.new
# On another content type like blogs_controller.rb, replace with appropriate instance variable
#content = #article
respond_to do |format|
format.html # show.html.erb
format.xml { render :xml => #article }
end
end
end
show.html.erb for articles (change appropriate variables for blog or whatever)
<h1><%= #article.title %></h1>
<%= #article.body.html_safe %>
<%= render :partial => 'shared/comments', :locals => { :commentable => #article } %>
shared/_comments.html.erb (I'm leaving out the displaying of posted comments here for simplification, just showing the form to submit them)
<%= form_for([commentable, #comment]) do |f| %>
<h3>Post a new comment</h3>
<%= render :partial => 'shared/errors', :locals => { :content => #comment } %>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label :name, :value => params[:name] %>
<%= f.text_field :name, :class => 'textfield' %>
</div>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label :mail, :value => params[:mail] %>
<%= f.text_field :mail, :class => 'textfield' %>
</div>
<div class="field">
<%= f.text_area :body, :rows => 10, :class => 'textarea full', :value => params[:body] %>
</div>
<%= f.submit :class => 'button blue' %>
<% end %>
shared/_errors.html.erb (I refactored this as a partial to reuse for articles, blogs, comments, etc, but this is just a standard error code)
<% if content.errors.any? %>
<div class="flash error">
<p><strong><%= pluralize(content.errors.count, "error") %> prohibited this page from being saved:</strong></p>
<ul>
<% content.errors.full_messages.each do |msg| %>
<li><%= msg %></li>
<% end %>
</ul>
</div>
<% end %>
I slightly refactored #Shannon answer to make it more dynamic. In my 'find_parent' method I'm grabbing the url path and fetching the controller name. In the 'create' method I'm creating an 'instance_variable_set' which creates a dynamic variable for either Articles (#article) or Blogs (#blog) or what ever it may be.
Hopefully you'll like what I've done? Please let me know if you have any doubts or if something can be improved?
def create
#comment = #commentable.comments.new(params[:comment])
if #comment.save
redirect_to #commentable, notice: "Comment created."
else
content_type = find_parent
instance_variable_set "##{content_type.singularize}".to_sym, #commentable
#comments = #commentable.comments
render "#{content_type}/show"
end
end
def find_parent
resource = request.path.split('/')[1]
return resource.downcase
end
You're getting an error because the blogs/show view likely refers to the #blog object, which isn't present when you render it in the comments controller.
You should go back to using the redirect_to rather than render. It wasn't displaying a flash when you made an invalid comment because you weren't telling it to set a flash if the comment wasn't saved. A flash will persist till the next request.