Rails - Feb 2006 - must be a cleaner way to do this ...

Am trying to do a bulk entry facility for some project or other.  It 
works but it feels ugly.  I generate a form with twenty empty input 
fields:


%= form_tag("action" => "enter_stuff") %>
	<% (1..20).each do |line| %>
	    <div id="line<%= line %>">
	    <%= line %>
	    <<%= text_field("action", "name",
"size" => 80) %>
	    &nbsp
	    </div>
	<% end %>
	<%= submit_tag("Enter stuff") %>
<%= end_form_tag %>

That creates twenty lines of html that looks like this:

<div id="line2">
    2
    <<input id="action_name" name="action[name]"
size="80" type="text"
/>
    &nbsp
</div>

The action enter_stuff looks like this

      breakpoint(''in main.enter_stuff'')
      request.params[''action[name]''].each do |name|
          if name != ""
            action = Action.new
            action.name = name
            action.save
          end
      end


Can''t use @params.  In the console @params looks like

{"commit=>"Enter stuff",
"action"=>"enter_stuff",
"controller"=>"main")

Is there a cleaner way to do this?

Ed




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

First thing, that (1..20) smells like business logic, so I''d move it to
the
controller.  That makes the show controller look like this -

def show
  @actions = []
  (1..20).eash do |line|
    @actions << Action.new
  end
end

Then in your form, use a partial
<%= form_tag("action" => "enter_stuff") %>
  <%= render :partial => "action", :collection => @actions
%>
<%= submit_tag("Enter stuff") %>

In _action.rhtml -

            <div id="line<%= line
%>">
>             <%= line %>
>             <<%= text_field("action[#{action_counter}]",
"name", "size" =>
> 80) %>
>             &nbsp
>             </div>


now, when this is submitted, you get back a 2D array like
action[1][name]=xxx

def process
  params[:action].each do |action|
    if !action[:name].nil?
      Action.create(action)
    end
  end
end


Also, I think that test for nil actions isn''t necessary, as empty
fields
don''t get submitted with the form.

All of this is a brain dump, sans tests, but something like it should work.

matt
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This looks pretty good, but I would check for blank? instead of nil? 
here, as blank text fields do get submitted with the form.

def process
    params[:action].each { |action| Action.create(action) unless 
action.blank? }
end

the blank? check is equal to (var.nil? || var.empty?)

Cheers!
Patrick
> def process
>   params[:action].each do |action|
>     if !action[:name].nil?
>       Action.create(action)
>     end
>   end
> end
>
>
> Also, I think that test for nil actions isn''t necessary, as empty 
> fields don''t get submitted with the form.
>
> All of this is a brain dump, sans tests, but something like it should 
> work.
>
> matt
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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>Rails mailing list
>Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
>http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>  
>
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Mathew, Patrick --

I like the look of these better than what I have -- but they don''t
work.
In the partial, I am getting this error --

action[0] is not allowed as an instance variable name

As I understand it, the rendering is passing each invocation of the 
partial a single element and the array reference ruins its day.

Have tried various permutations, and the least bad seems to be to have 
the line in the partion look like

<%= text_field("action", "name", :index =>
action_counter, "size" => 80)
%>

This gives me html that looks like this

<div id="line1" >
     1
     <input id="action_1_name" name="action[1][name]"
size="80"
type="text" />
     &nbsp
</div>,

params that look like this (in the process action)

params =>
{"commit"=>"Enter stuff",
"action"=>"enter_stuff",
"controller"=>"main"}

and request.params that look like this

request.params =>
{"action[19][name]"=>[""],
"action[15][name]"=>[""],
"commit"=>["Enter
stuff"], "action[8][name]"=>[""],
"action[1][name]"=>["another lame "],
"action[17][name]"=>[""],
"action[13][name]"=>[""],
"action[7][name]"=>[""], "action[0][name]"
=>["this is yet"],
"action[12][name]"=>[""],
"action[9][name]"=>[""],
"action[5][name]"=>[""],
"action[14][name]"=>[""],
 "action[10][name]"=>[""],
"action[6][name]"=>[""],
"action[2][name]"=>["test"],
"action[18][name]"=>[""],
"action[11][name]"=>[""],
"action[4][name]"=>[""],
"action[16][name]"=>[""],
"action[3][name]"=>[""]}

which i could probably process if I wanted to, but I want my darn 
@params to look right.

Any ideas?  I''m getting close to deciding the form helper is more 
trouble than its worth in this contect.  Am I off base?

Thanks
Ed








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