Rails - Jan 2006 - Can''t get select helper to populate dropdown w/default value

Guys,

I searched this forum and found plenty of people having this problem, 
but I didn''t see any definitive solution.  Usings Rails 1.0.

When I edit an existing record, I can''t get the basic
"select" helper to
display the current value contained in the field of the record.  All of 
my other (text) fields populate correctly with current field values.

There appears to be a ":selected =>" option with the select helper
and
some of its variations, but I can''t get it to work.  Frankly, I thought
it would simply "work", in the same way that text fields get populated
correctly.

Am I doing something wrong, is the select helper broken, or is it simply 
not supposed to display the current value when editing?

-- 
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Post some code for us to look at. There can be a lot of little things to
look at in these cases, and its tough to help with out seeing the code.

-Nick

On 1/1/06, Peter Jagielski <pjagielski@gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> Guys,
>
> I searched this forum and found plenty of people having this problem,
> but I didn''t see any definitive solution.  Usings Rails 1.0.
>
> When I edit an existing record, I can''t get the basic
"select" helper to
> display the current value contained in the field of the record.  All of
> my other (text) fields populate correctly with current field values.
>
> There appears to be a ":selected =>" option with the select
helper and
> some of its variations, but I can''t get it to work.  Frankly, I
thought
> it would simply "work", in the same way that text fields get
populated
> correctly.
>
> Am I doing something wrong, is the select helper broken, or is it simply
> not supposed to display the current value when editing?
>
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>
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Peter Jagielski wrote:
> 
> Am I doing something wrong, is the select helper broken, or is it simply 
> not supposed to display the current value when editing?
I suspect you are doing something wrong. If you use the select helpers, 
they will automatically select the correct value for you if you have 
them set up properly.

One thing that could do it is if the values displayed in your dropdown 
do not match the values in your database.  For instance, if you are 
displaying usernames, but storing user ids.

If that is the case, make sure you populate the option array properly 
using something like this..

select("post", "person_id", Person.find_all.collect {|p| [
p.name, p.id
] }, { :include_blank => true })

The ''collect'' being the important part here.  The first value
is what
gets displayed, and the second is the internal value used by the select 
dropdown.  In this case, the @post.person_id value should be an
''id'',
not a ''name''.


-- 
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Nick,

Here''s the hash that defines the contents of the dropdown:

YESNO = { "No" => "0",
          "Yes" => "1" }

In other words, the user sees options for "Yes" and "No, and
either 0 or
1 are stored in the table''s field.  In this case, the user can specify 
whether or not they are an administrator.

Here''s my select helper code:

<%= select ''user'', ''administrator'',
User::YESNO.sort, :include_blank =>
TRUE %>

I tried all manner of including :selected => ??? and it''s never
worked.

Now, I have found the following workaround, which solves the problem by 
using Rails'' options_for_select helper:

<p><label
for="user_administrator">Administrator</label><br/>
<select id="user_administrator"
name="user[administrator]">
  <option value=""></option>
  <%= options_for_select User::YESNO.sort, @user.administrator.to_s %>
</select></p>

But going back to the original question, shouldn''t the basic select 
helper be able to handle this?

-- 
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Kevin,

I understand what you said, but I don''t know if I need to use the 
.collect the way you did, nor can I get it to work anyway.  Since the 
data source for my dropdown is a hash and not the contents of a lookup 
table, and the dropdown itself is being populated correctly, I''m not 
sure if you your technique fits my situation.  Suggestions?

-- 
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Well thats the way I do it Peter, using the options helper that is. By
looking at the docs for the select helper, it doesn''t need/have a
selected
value, it should automatically pick the right one. Like I said, I usually
always use the options helper and never really had any problems with that.

-Nick

On 1/1/06, Peter Jagielski <pjagielski@gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> Nick,
>
> Here''s the hash that defines the contents of the dropdown:
>
> YESNO = { "No" => "0",
>           "Yes" => "1" }
>
> In other words, the user sees options for "Yes" and "No, and
either 0 or
> 1 are stored in the table''s field.  In this case, the user can
specify
> whether or not they are an administrator.
>
> Here''s my select helper code:
>
> <%= select ''user'', ''administrator'',
User::YESNO.sort, :include_blank =>
> TRUE %>
>
> I tried all manner of including :selected => ??? and it''s never
worked.
>
> Now, I have found the following workaround, which solves the problem by
> using Rails'' options_for_select helper:
>
> <p><label
for="user_administrator">Administrator</label><br/>
> <select id="user_administrator"
name="user[administrator]">
>   <option value=""></option>
>   <%= options_for_select User::YESNO.sort, @user.administrator.to_s
%>
> </select></p>
>
> But going back to the original question, shouldn''t the basic
select
> helper be able to handle this?
>
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>
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Guys,

Ok, problem solved.  I changed my hash from:

YESNO = { "No" => "0",
          "Yes" => "1" }

to:

YESNO = { "No" => 0,
          "Yes" => 1 }

The field''s type in my table is SMALLINT, so now the hash matches. 
So...the following code works:

<%= select ''user'', ''administrator'',
Bug::YESNO, :include_blank => TRUE
%>

Thanks Kevin & Nick!  Happy New Year!

Hope this helps the other folks getting this kind of thing to work!

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Nick Stuart wrote:
> Well thats the way I do it Peter, using the options helper that is. By
> looking at the docs for the select helper, it doesn''t need/have a 
> selected
> value, it should automatically pick the right one. Like I said, I 
> usually
> always use the options helper and never really had any problems with 
> that.
> 
> -Nick
incidentally, if you try to use the :prompt option for the select 
helpers, make sure that your database table can accept a null for that 
value.  The prompt is only selected by default when the corresponding 
model value is a null.


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