Using tr as label-input wrapper in simple-form - ruby-on-rails-3

Question

I may be old school,and I've been through many div/span attempts and swore off tables at one time, but there are just some good uses for tables, one of them, imho, is a form. I prefer to shade my label fields with a different background color. I've tried may ways, but if the input (actually either) side overflows the width, it will mess up the label background. I'd look at another attempt, but I really prefer a table approach.
In 2.x I set my configuration to:
config.wrappers :tag => :tr, :class => :input,
:hint_class => :field_with_hint, :error_class => :field_with_errors do |b|
b.use :label, :wrap_with => {:tag => :td, :class => :label}
b.use :input, :wrap_with => {:tag => :td, :class => :input}
b.use :hint, :wrap_with => { :tag => :span, :class => :hint }
b.use :error, :wrap_with => { :tag => :caption, :class => :error }
Works great!, except for errors. I first had it as a span and it went to the top of the table. I then set it to caption and, at least in Safari, it ends tbody and puts in the caption and starts another tbody - but it screws up the table flow.
Is there a way I can force the error to be in the input wrapper? Or any other approach? I'd even accept (and maybe this is what I should do) putting the error in the main message like the scaffold approach. Didn't think about that until I started to write this, but I guess I could not use simple forms error stuff and go back to the scaffold approach.
At least I think you can do that. For instance, I didn't know (and could not find in documentation - but I didn't look real hard!) that you could use regular form_for input (e.g., f.text_field) mixed with f.input. Great for things like putting City, St, Zip on one row.

Answer 1

I guess I should answer my own question. I ended up not using Simple Forms error notification and went back to the scaffold method.
I configured my wrappers as follows:
config.wrappers :tag => :tr, :class => :input,
:hint_class => :field_with_hint, :error_class => :field_with_errors do |b|
b.use :label, :wrap_with => {:tag => :td, :class => :label}
b.use :input, :wrap_with => {:tag => :td, :class => :input}
Wrote a helper method for errors:
def show_form_errors(instance)
if instance.errors.any?
errors = content_tag(:h2, pluralize(instance.errors.count, "error") +"prohibited this project from being saved:")
list = content_tag :ul do
e = ""
instance.errors.full_messages.each do |msg|
e <<"<li>#{msg}</li>"
end
e.html_safe
end
return content_tag(:div, (errors + list),:id => "error_explanation").html_safe
end
end
# instead of
# = f.error_notification
# I used
# = show_form_errors(#event)
Had to tweak the CSS for error_explanation because of how I had borders defined on my table rows (just border-bottom) and add !important to wrap the tr with a red border:
.field_with_errors {
padding: 2px;
border:solid 3px red!important;
background-color:pink;
}
Works fine and I am content with this method.