Hi All, I''ve been playing with ruby for some time now, but mostly with Models and Controllers. I''m now to the point where I''d like to start working an the View part of MCV more. My problem is I''m having a very difficult time understanding how to work with forms. What are some good (preferably on-line) references for making useful forms with the Rails framework? I have two main issues: * Creating and handling forms that do not directly correspond to the fields in a Model class * Dynamically generating forms at run-time based on the a polymorphic association. What I would really like (and have tried to write without any success) is a way of specifying what data I need from the user and having the program write a form to get and validate that data. If there is such a thing I''d like to know about it. (is this what XForms are?) John Miller -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
First I want to point you to the reference or documentation page where you can find many answers to many questions :D Official: (no beauty) http://api.rubyonrails.org/ Ajax: (more beauty) http://www.railsbrain.com/api/rails-1.2.3/doc/index.html John Miller wrote:> I have two main issues: > * Creating and handling forms that do not directly correspond to the > fields in a Model classWell, you can do that easily :) You can use the form fields like this (depend on how you created them) params[:field] or params[:name][:field]> * Dynamically generating forms at run-time based on the a polymorphic > association.This would be cool, but I don''t know how :D> What I would really like (and have tried to write without any success) > is a way of specifying what data I need from the user and having the > program write a form to get and validate that data. If there is such a > thing I''d like to know about it. (is this what XForms are?)Well, you could in your controller create array with the information you want to retrieve and which type, then you can use that array to create the form :) I hope that helped a little bit :D -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
Thanks to Jamal Soueidan for the reply! I have read the API docs, and I must admit they have a lot of detail, but not much on best practices and almost nothing on integrating the helper functions into a good looking and functional web page. It is also not clear how best to add JavaScript functionality to the elements. There have been several excellent blog posts and wiki pages about designing useful Models and RESTful controllers, but there seems to be very little about how to create DRY and elegant view code, particularly where custom forms are concerned. Re: dynamically generating forms, I have written a class (Inherits from Hash actually) that I could use to describe form data, but I''ve gotten stuck trying use this data to build a form, and decided that there must be someone who had done a better job. Part of my reason for posting was in hope of finding a replacement. Again, I keep running into XForms when I look, but I''m not sure what they are or how they work. Any additional help or references would be great. Thanks, John Miller Jamal Soueidan wrote:> First I want to point you to the reference or documentation page where > you can find many answers to many questions :D > > > Official: (no beauty) > http://api.rubyonrails.org/ > > Ajax: (more beauty) > http://www.railsbrain.com/api/rails-1.2.3/doc/index.html > > > John Miller wrote: >> I have two main issues: >> * Creating and handling forms that do not directly correspond to the >> fields in a Model class > > Well, you can do that easily :) > > You can use the form fields like this (depend on how you created them) > params[:field] > or > params[:name][:field] > >> * Dynamically generating forms at run-time based on the a polymorphic >> association. > > This would be cool, but I don''t know how :D > >> What I would really like (and have tried to write without any success) >> is a way of specifying what data I need from the user and having the >> program write a form to get and validate that data. If there is such a >> thing I''d like to know about it. (is this what XForms are?) > > Well, you could in your controller create array with the information you > want to retrieve and which type, then you can use that array to create > the form :) > > I hope that helped a little bit :D-- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
On 8/22/07, John Miller <rails-mailing-list-ARtvInVfO7ksV2N9l4h3zg@public.gmane.org> wrote:> > There have been several excellent blog posts and wiki pages about > designing useful Models and RESTful controllers, but there seems to be > very little about how to create DRY and elegant view code, particularly > where custom forms are concerned.By this do you mean non-model based forms? For model based forms, and model-combos, you should look into form_for and fields_for helper methods. These allow you to use a block to describe your form and expand out the various field level helpers (which sets the field names automatically from the model.) http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/FormHelper.html#M000494>Re: dynamically generating forms, I have written a class (Inherits from >Hash actually) that I could use to describe form data, but I''ve gotten >stuck trying use this data to build a form, and decided that there must >be someone who had done a better job. Part of my reason for posting was >in hope of finding a replacement. Again, I keep running into XForms >when I look, but I''m not sure what they are or how they work.You should look into subclassing FormBuilder that you can use with form_for in your views. The best reference/guide for this is the Agile Web Development With Rails, 2E IMO. HTH, Ed -- Ed Howland http://greenprogrammer.blogspot.com "The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain proprietary, confidential and/or legally privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from all computers." --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
Ed Howland wrote:> On 8/22/07, John Miller <rails-mailing-list-ARtvInVfO7ksV2N9l4h3zg@public.gmane.org> wrote: >> >> There have been several excellent blog posts and wiki pages about >> designing useful Models and RESTful controllers, but there seems to be >> very little about how to create DRY and elegant view code, particularly >> where custom forms are concerned. > > By this do you mean non-model based forms?For all intents and purposes yes. I have a Building model that holds many different types of buildings (warehouse, retail, office, condo, apartment, etc..) The table needed to hold all the different aspects was large and sparsly populated so I decided that I would take all fields not common to all buildings and marshal them to a column named ''data.'' But now I want to edit that information from a web page. The business rules I''m working with mean that every building needs a to work with slightly different set of information. I need to be able to build a form based on what information the user is allowed to change and it will be different for every instance of Building.> > For model based forms, and model-combos, you should look into form_for > and fields_for helper methods. These allow you to use a block to > describe your form and expand out the various field level helpers > (which sets the field names automatically from the model.) > > http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/FormHelper.html#M000494I have used this almost exclusively to do forms up to this point. It''s great, it just works. (except that it cannot pre-validate the forms with JavaScript before hitting the server) I have attempted to use the FormTagHelper classes, but they seem rather messy, and require that I put too much logic into the view for my taste. My biggest problem here is that I''m not a web design expert (I''m a real programmer ;-) and I cannot find any good references either on form design or the "opinions" that rails uses to construct forms from it''s Helper functions. For example there is a sublease checkbox for some buildings when it''s checked I need to collect some information about the terms for of the sublease. I need more information for buildings built after 1987 and extra information for some states. I would like design a form that adds only the extra needed fields to the page once the box is checked. At the moment I am displaying fields for every conceivable situation and having to validate the result once it gets back to the server. Needless to say this will not work in a live environment, we''ll have someone spending all day trying to find the non-existent California Earthquake Retrofit report for a brand-new warehouse in Maine.> >>Re: dynamically generating forms, I have written a class (Inherits from >>Hash actually) that I could use to describe form data, but I''ve gotten >>stuck trying use this data to build a form, and decided that there must >>be someone who had done a better job. Part of my reason for posting was >>in hope of finding a replacement. Again, I keep running into XForms >>when I look, but I''m not sure what they are or how they work. > > You should look into subclassing FormBuilder that you can use with > form_for in your views. > > The best reference/guide for this is the Agile Web Development With > Rails, 2E IMO.I have the first ed and my perusal in my perusal of the second, I didn''t find much that I could not have already learned from the docs. How would I subclass FormBuilder in the example above?> > HTH, > Ed > --Thanks, John Miller -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
For automatic building of forms i did something like this:
<form blabla>
<% @columns.each do |column, title| -%>
<%= title -%>:
<%= auto_form_method f, @resource, column, auto_rest_data -%>
<% end -%>
</form>
and @columns should be populated like this in the controller:
@columns= [[:attribute1, ''title1''],
[:attribute2, ''title2'']] # ...etc...
@foreign_keys= { :other_model_id => OtherModel }
auto_form_method is a method helper:
# Standard selection of field type given the column type.
def auto_form_method form, resource, attribute, auto_rest_data
# Check if attribute is indeed a model relation foreign key
if @foreign_keys.include? attribute
model= @foreign_keys[attribute]
auto_model_foreign_key_select form, resource, model, attribute
else
auto_standard_form_method form, resource, attribute
end
end
# Creation of a select tag given a foreign key
def auto_model_foreign_key_select form, resource, model, attribute
option_tags= options_from_collection_for_select model.find(:all),
''id'',
''label'',
h(resource.send(attribute))
select_tag "resource[#{attribute}]", option_tags, options
end
# This Helper returns the apropiate form method
# for the resource and attribute
# TODO: This is pretty ugly :) ...
# Is there any other way to acomplish this functionality?
def auto_standard_form_method form, resource, attribute
case resource.column_for_attribute(attribute).type
when :string : form.text_field(attribute)
when :text : form.text_area(attribute)
when :integer : form.text_field(attribute)
when :float : form.text_field(attribute)
when :decimal : form.text_field(attribute)
when :datetime : form.text_field(attribute)
when :timestamp : form.text_field(attribute)
when :time : form.text_field(attribute)
when :date : form.text_field(attribute)
when :binary : form.check_box(attribute)
when :boolean : form.check_box(attribute)
end
end
Summary: It is not automatic nor easy to acomplish, IMO!!!
EmmanuelOga.blogspot.com
--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
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