Rails - Mar 2006 - Select List to change type of STI class

Hi:

I''m trying to create a drop-down list to change the type of a Single 
Table Inheritance class. I tried this:

<%= select :user, :type, [ [''Author'',
''Author''],
                             [''Editor'',
''Editor''],
                             [''Administrator'',
''Administrator''] ]
%>

But I get this error:

wrong argument type String (expected Module)

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On 3/30/06, jacob smails <jsmails@yahoo.com>
wrote:
> Hi:
>
> I''m trying to create a drop-down list to change the type of a
Single
> Table Inheritance class. I tried this:
>
> <%= select :user, :type, [ [''Author'',
''Author''],
>                              [''Editor'',
''Editor''],
>                              [''Administrator'',
''Administrator''] ]
> %>
>
> But I get this error:
>
> wrong argument type String (expected Module)
>
You can do something like this:
selected_type = params[:user][:type]
klass = selected_type.constantize
new_user = klass.new(params[:user])

Wilson Bilkovich wrote:
> On 3/30/06, jacob smails <jsmails@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> But I get this error:
>>
>> wrong argument type String (expected Module)
>>
> 
> You can do something like this:
> selected_type = params[:user][:type]
> klass = selected_type.constantize
> new_user = klass.new(params[:user])
Actually, the part I was struggling with was how to create the drop-down 
list. I ended up just creating the list by hand (i.e. not using the form 
helper). Then, in the controller I reset the subclass and save like 
this:

@user[:type] = params[:user][:type]
if @user.save
  etc...

It seems to work fine, but I still don''t understand the error I was 
getting using the "select" form helper. Any ideas?

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

On 3/31/06, jacob smails <jsmails@yahoo.com>
wrote:
> Wilson Bilkovich wrote:
> > On 3/30/06, jacob smails <jsmails@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >> But I get this error:
> >>
> >> wrong argument type String (expected Module)
> >>
> >
> > You can do something like this:
> > selected_type = params[:user][:type]
> > klass = selected_type.constantize
> > new_user = klass.new(params[:user])
>
> Actually, the part I was struggling with was how to create the drop-down
> list. I ended up just creating the list by hand (i.e. not using the form
> helper). Then, in the controller I reset the subclass and save like
> this:
>
> @user[:type] = params[:user][:type]
> if @user.save
>   etc...
>
> It seems to work fine, but I still don''t understand the error I
was
> getting using the "select" form helper. Any ideas?
>
Oh, I see. You could do it this way:
@available_user_types = %w(Administrator User SuperCoolHacker)
@type_options = @available_user_types.zip(@available_user_types)

..and then in your view, use the @type_options variable as the
parameter to the "select" helper.

Here''s some code from the admin interface of an app I''m
working on,
just in case it helps.
It needs to be simplified, but it might be a useful starting point. 
Can you tell I''m paranoid about form parameters?

  def new_item
    if params[:item]
      item_type = params[:item][:item_type]
      item_type = ''Item'' if item_type.blank?
    else
      item_type = ''Item''
    end
    @item = item_type.constantize.new(params[:item])
    @item.community = @community

    if request.post? and @item.save
      flash[:notice] = "#{@item.item_type.titleize} was successfully
created."
      redirect_to :action => ''show_item'', :id => @item
    end
  end

..and in the rhtml template, this:
<%= select ''item'', ''item_type'',
Item::ITEM_OPTIONS,
  {:prompt => "Select one:"}, :onchange =>
''item_type_select();'' %>

ITEM_OPTIONS is a constant in the superclass containing a
select-helper-compatible list of subclasses that users can choose
from.

I would say just drop the first option for your array.  I think the  
select only takes one option as a string... ie [''Author'',
''Editor'',
''Administrator''] or if you want something different...not in
your case
though  [[''Author'', 1], [''Editor'', 2],
[''Administrator'', 3]]  Rails uses
the first item in the array as the list option and the second as the  
value, if you want them to be different.  Else, just use a single value.



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