Rails - Jan 2006 - HABTM relationships and retrieving multiple selects in controller

Hello all,

I have a product table and an option table that are connected to one another
via a join table.  These two tables both contain has_and_belong_to_many
relationships with each other.

I am trying to setup a page where I will create a product and add in its
options.  I have already populated the options table with data to draw
from.

so, to start, here is the method from my controller:
def new
  @product = Product.new()
  @opt = Option.find_all
end

and we go off to the "new" view, where I have this:

<select name="product[options][]", size=''5'',
multiple=''multiple>
  <%= options_from_collection_for_select(@opt, "id",
"name", @
product.options) %>
</select>
other product creation code goes here...

This select statement does correctly draw the options that were found by the
controller and put into @opt. before displaying this page.

This form submits to the create method of the controller, where I have this:
def create
  @product = Product.new(params[:product])
  @product.save
end

Well, this create controller does not work.  WebBrick reports "option
expected, got string".  I see that the option ID I select is being passed
in
as a parameter like "options"=>["3"].  But obviously I
cannot retrieve the
option ids, create the options, and add them to the product, and save it all
in such a simplistic manner.  I''ve tried to figure out how to, but
can''t.
I''ve read the Agile book, on page 356, but still can''t
understand.

Can anyone provide some help?

Thanks,
Shelby
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