Rails - Jul 2006 - using association properties in form helpers

sorry for the noob question:

how do i reference an association''s properties in a form helper?

e.g. if i wanted to build a select list to choose a user''s
address''s
state (user.address.state), how would i hook that to the "method" of
collection_select
  collection_select :user, ???, States.find(:all)

jeff emminger wrote:
> sorry for the noob question:
> 
> how do i reference an association''s properties in a form helper?
> 
> e.g. if i wanted to build a select list to choose a user''s
address''s
> state (user.address.state), how would i hook that to the "method"
of
> collection_select
>  collection_select :user, ???, States.find(:all)
No, you can''t do that directly at present, though a core patch
is available to allow cascades such as this to be used in form
helpers: http://dev.rubyonrails.org/ticket/2053

Instead you need to write:

Controller:

   for new:

     @user = User.new(params[:user])
     @address = @user.build_address(params[:address])

   or for edit:

     @user = User.find(params[:id])
     @address = @user.address
     @address.attributes = params[:address]

View:

   collection_select :address, :state, ...

-- 
We develop, watch us RoR, in numbers too big to ignore.

awesome - thanks for the reply.  i kind of figured out the same answer
but it''s good to hear reinforcement.  makes for a bit of a mess in the
update method unfortunately.

that core patch - is it going to be made a part of a future release
e.g. RoR 1.7 or something?


On 7/21/06, Mark Reginald James <mrj@bigpond.net.au>
wrote:
> jeff emminger wrote:
> > sorry for the noob question:
> >
> > how do i reference an association''s properties in a form
helper?
> >
> > e.g. if i wanted to build a select list to choose a user''s
address''s
> > state (user.address.state), how would i hook that to the
"method" of
> > collection_select
> >  collection_select :user, ???, States.find(:all)
>
> No, you can''t do that directly at present, though a core patch
> is available to allow cascades such as this to be used in form
> helpers: http://dev.rubyonrails.org/ticket/2053
>
> Instead you need to write:
>
> Controller:
>
>    for new:
>
>      @user = User.new(params[:user])
>      @address = @user.build_address(params[:address])
>
>    or for edit:
>
>      @user = User.find(params[:id])
>      @address = @user.address
>      @address.attributes = params[:address]
>
> View:
>
>    collection_select :address, :state, ...
>
> --
> We develop, watch us RoR, in numbers too big to ignore.
>
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