Rails - Jun 2009 - RJS and drop down menu

Trying to update a text field on a page with the value from a drop down
select menu.  Having a hard time accessing the value in the menu.  Any
help would be great! :-)
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Hi Matt,

On Thu, 2009-06-25 at 18:31 +0200, Matt Young wrote:
> Trying to update a text field on a page with the value from a drop down
> select menu.  Having a hard time accessing the value in the menu.  Any
> help would be great! :-)
The basics are to put an observe_field on the drop down with a url that
does whatever processing you need to do to construct the update you want
to do and either a) use the :update option for observe_field, or b) use
RJS to do the update.  The :update option limits you to a single DOM
element in terms of what can be updated.  Say more to get more ;-)

HTH,
Bill

Bill,
I have a collection select that shows a list of users:
<%= collection_select(:person, :convert, @nonUsers, :id, :fullName, 
{:prompt => "Choose..."}, :style => "width:125px;")
%>

And a text field:
<%= text_field_tag :userName %>

When a user is selected I''m trying to pull that user out of a array 
variable that I already have set up, @nonUsers (used to populate the 
collection_select), and have that user''s userName put into the text
box.

I can''t seem to figure out how to access the value of what''s
been
selected with an observe_field.

(Trying to do all this with RJS and not make a post back to the server).

My observe_field looks like:
<%= observe_field "person_convert", :function => update_page
{|page|
page["userName"].value = @nonUsers.select{|p| p.id == ***** }.collect{
|p| p.fullName } }%>

BUT I''m not sure what to put in place of the ***** to get that 
collection_select''s selected value.
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Hi Matt,

I haven''t used the :function option before.  I find it easier just to
write the JS when I want to keep it all in the browser, so take what
follows with a grain of salt.

On Thu, 2009-06-25 at 19:10 +0200, Matt Young wrote:
> Bill,
> I have a collection select that shows a list of users:
> <%= collection_select(:person, :convert, @nonUsers, :id, :fullName, 
> {:prompt => "Choose..."}, :style =>
"width:125px;") %>
> 
> And a text field:
> <%= text_field_tag :userName %>
> 
> When a user is selected I''m trying to pull that user out of a
array
> variable that I already have set up, @nonUsers (used to populate the 
> collection_select), and have that user''s userName put into the
text box.
That''s not what you want to do.  observe_field will capture / pass
selected value.
> I can''t seem to figure out how to access the value of
what''s been
> selected with an observe_field.
> 
> (Trying to do all this with RJS and not make a post back to the server).
Personally, I''d do it against the server first (because it''s
oh-so-simple) and leave the optimization until performance is an issue.
> My observe_field looks like:
> <%= observe_field "person_convert", :function =>
update_page {|page|
> page["userName"].value = @nonUsers.select{|p| p.id == *****
}.collect{
> |p| p.fullName } }%>
> BUT I''m not sure what to put in place of the ***** to get that 
> collection_select''s selected value.
If I''m reading the api / code for observe_field right, I''m not
sure
the :function variation supports what you want to do.  As best I can
tell (having not much time to review the Rails source), if it does, the
final form would, I think, look something like this:

<%= observe_field("person_convert", :function =>
"update_page(*****)"}%>

But in the build_observer source, it doesn''t look like there''s
a way to
pass the value in.  Looks like it''s just passing the
"update_page(*****)" without any further processing.

I know that''s not much help.  Sorry.  My recommendation would be to
repost your problem under a more descriptive Subject line.  Something
like ''problem passing selected value to observe_field
:function''

Best regards,
Bill