Rails - Aug 2009 - How to get current time including milliseconds for div id?

I need to auto generate a guaranteed to be unique number or string to be
used something like this in a partial view <div
id=<%=unique_div_id%>>

I thought of using time.now but that only goes to seconds. I have tried
rand(time.now) but that does not guarantee a nique ID.
There would be more than one partial created within any given second
hence the need for time in milliseconds.
It doesn''t have to be a time function it can be anything so long as it
is fast, minimal memory footprint and can be stored in a variable for
use with a link_to_function that will toggle the visibility of the div.

I thought that this would be such a simple thing to do but I have been
tearing my hair out over this for days and I need a solution real fast.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated

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

Time.now.to_i

-
Maurício Linhares
http://codeshooter.wordpress.com/ | http://twitter.com/mauriciojr



On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 12:35 PM, James
West<rails-mailing-list-ARtvInVfO7ksV2N9l4h3zg@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
>
> I need to auto generate a guaranteed to be unique number or string to be
> used something like this in a partial view <div
id=<%=unique_div_id%>>
>
> I thought of using time.now but that only goes to seconds. I have tried
> rand(time.now) but that does not guarantee a nique ID.
> There would be more than one partial created within any given second
> hence the need for time in milliseconds.
> It doesn''t have to be a time function it can be anything so long
as it
> is fast, minimal memory footprint and can be stored in a variable for
> use with a link_to_function that will toggle the visibility of the div.
>
> I thought that this would be such a simple thing to do but I have been
> tearing my hair out over this for days and I need a solution real fast.
>
> Any ideas would be greatly appreciated
>
> James
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>
> >
>

You want to use Time.now.to_f if you''re worried about more than one
hit per second.


On Aug 19, 11:44 am, Maurício Linhares
<linhares.mauri...-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> Time.now.to_i
>
> -
> Maurício
Linhareshttp://codeshooter.wordpress.com/|http://twitter.com/mauriciojr
>
> On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 12:35 PM, James
>
> West<rails-mailing-l...-ARtvInVfO7ksV2N9l4h3zg@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
>
> > I need to auto generate a guaranteed to be unique number or string to
be
> > used something like this in a partial view <div
id=<%=unique_div_id%>>
>
> > I thought of using time.now but that only goes to seconds. I have
tried
> > rand(time.now) but that does not guarantee a nique ID.
> > There would be more than one partial created within any given second
> > hence the need for time in milliseconds.
> > It doesn''t have to be a time function it can be anything so
long as it
> > is fast, minimal memory footprint and can be stored in a variable for
> > use with a link_to_function that will toggle the visibility of the
div.
>
> > I thought that this would be such a simple thing to do but I have been
> > tearing my hair out over this for days and I need a solution real
fast.
>
> > Any ideas would be greatly appreciated
>
> > James
> > --
> > Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Rick Lloyd wrote:
> You want to use Time.now.to_f if you''re worried about more than
one
> hit per second.
> 
> 
> On Aug 19, 11:44�am, Maur�cio Linhares <linhares.mauri...@gmail.com>
Thank you for the fast response
Time.now.to_f gives me the following
<div id="edit-form-1250697708.562" style="display:
none;">
</div>
<div id="list-form-1250697708.562">
</div>
<div id="edit-form-1250697708.562" style="display:
none;">
</div>
<div id="list-form-1250697708.562">
</div>
<div id="edit-form-1250697708.562" style="display:
none;">
</div>
<div id="list-form-1250697708.562">
</div>
<div id="edit-form-1250697708.562" style="display:
none;">
</div>

My partial looks like this

<%tnow = Time.now.to_f%>
<%-list_form_id = "list-form-#{tnow}"-%>
<%-edit_form_id = "edit-form-#{tnow}"-%>
<div id =<%=list_form_id-%>>
  <%= render :partial => ''address_list'', :object =>
f.object, :locals =>
{:edit_form_div => edit_form_id} -%>
</div>
<div id =<%=edit_form_id-%> style="display: none">
  <fieldset>
etc...

I''ll move the div id generation out into a helper when I have this 
working but I''m totally stumped
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

James West wrote:
> I need to auto generate a guaranteed to be unique number or string to be
> used something like this in a partial view <div
id=<%=unique_div_id%>>
First of all: what''s the purpose of this?  Why do you need all these 
unique IDs?  I want to make sure you''ve got an appropriate solution 
here.
As far as your question, why not just use GUIDs?

Best,
--
Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
marnen-sbuyVjPbboAdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

James West wrote:
> Rick Lloyd wrote:
>> You want to use Time.now.to_f if you''re worried about more
than one
>> hit per second.
>> 
>> 
>> On Aug 19, 11:44�am, Maur�cio Linhares
<linhares.mauri...@gmail.com>
> 
> Thank you for the fast response
> Time.now.to_f gives me the following
> <div id="edit-form-1250697708.562" style="display:
none;">
> </div>
> <div id="list-form-1250697708.562">
> </div>
> <div id="edit-form-1250697708.562" style="display:
none;">
> </div>
> <div id="list-form-1250697708.562">
> </div>
> <div id="edit-form-1250697708.562" style="display:
none;">
> </div>
> <div id="list-form-1250697708.562">
> </div>
> <div id="edit-form-1250697708.562" style="display:
none;">
> </div>
> 
> My partial looks like this
> 
> <%tnow = Time.now.to_f%>
> <%-list_form_id = "list-form-#{tnow}"-%>
> <%-edit_form_id = "edit-form-#{tnow}"-%>
> <div id =<%=list_form_id-%>>
>   <%= render :partial => ''address_list'', :object
=> f.object, :locals =>
> {:edit_form_div => edit_form_id} -%>
> </div>
> <div id =<%=edit_form_id-%> style="display: none">
>   <fieldset>
> etc...
> 
> I''ll move the div id generation out into a helper when I have this
> working but I''m totally stumped
My log is showing that these partials are being generagted really 
quickly
Rendered admin/users/_address_list (16.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_form (47.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_list (0.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_form (16.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_list (0.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_form (0.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_list (0.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_form (15.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_list (0.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_form (0.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_list (0.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_form (16.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_list (0.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_form (0.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_list (0.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_form (16.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_list (0.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_form (0.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_list (0.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_form (15.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_list (0.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_form (0.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_list (0.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_form (16.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_list (0.0ms)
Rendered admin/users/_address_form (0.0ms)

So it looks like I need some kind of randomisation as well.
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

This certainly looks like an incorrect approach to the problem.
Could you, please, elaborate on this?
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Gleb Mazovetskiy wrote:
> This certainly looks like an incorrect approach to the problem.
> Could you, please, elaborate on this?
That wouldn''t surprise me at all. lol!

It''s quite a complicated scenario and I was trying to keep this simple.

Here goes.

I''m working on a multi model form solution.
The theory.
One form that edits a user and can add addresses and email contact 
details and will be extended to make use of other relationships.
The addresses and emails are shown as a list but each one has it''s own 
form for editing using fields_for
I have edit links that show and hide the editing forms for each object 
in the list
I can use the object_id for the divs for existing objects but that
won''t
work for newly created objects

The code
edit_html.erb
<h3>Editing <%= show_user_type %> </h3>

<% form_for([:admin, @user]) do |f| %>

  <%= render :partial => "form", :locals => {:f => f}%>
  <p>
  <%= f.submit "Update" %>
  </p>
<% end %>

<%= link_to ''Show'', [:admin, @user] %> |
<%= link_to ''Back'', admin_users_path %>

_form.html.erb
<%= f.error_messages -%>
<div class="admin-form">
  <fieldset>
    <legend><%= show_user_type %></legend>
    <p>
      <%= f.label :name -%>:
      <%= f.text_field :name -%>
    </p>
    <p>
      <%= f.label :user_name -%>:
      <%= f.text_field :user_name -%>
    </p>
    <p>
      <%= f.label :password, ''Password'' -%>:
      <%= f.password_field :password, :size => 40-%>
    </p>
    <p>
      <%= f.label :password_confirmation, "confirm" -%>:
      <%= f.password_field :password_confirmation, :size => 40-%>
    </p>
  </fieldset>
</div>

<%= add_address_link(f) %>
<h3>Addresses</h3>
<%= link_to_toggle_child_list(''Addresses'',
''address_list'') %><!-- This
will show or hide the whole list -->
<div id ="address_list">
  <ul>
     <% f.fields_for :addresses do |address_form| -%>
       <%= render :partial => ''address_form'', :locals
=> { :f =>
address_form } %>
     <% end -%>
  </ul>
</div>

link_to_toggle_child_list helper

  def link_to_toggle_child_list(div_to_toggle, link_text)
    link_to_function "Show/Hide #{link_text}" do |page|
      page <<
"jQuery(''##{div_to_toggle}'').toggle(''slow'')"
    end
  end


Add address link helper

  def add_address_link(form_builder)
    link_to_function ''New address'' do |page|
      form_builder.fields_for :addresses, Address.new, :child_index => 
''NEW_RECORD'' do |f|
      html = render(:partial => ''address_form'', :locals
=> { :f => f })
        page << "jQuery(''#address_list 
ul'').append(''#{escape_javascript(html)}''.replace(/NEW_RECORD/g,
new
Date().getTime()))"
      end
    end
  end

The address form itself which is where the unique ID''s are needed
<%- if f.object.new_record?-%>
  <%tnow = Time.now.to_f%>
  <%-list_form_id = "list-form-#{tnow}"-%>
  <%-edit_form_id = "edit-form-#{tnow}"-%>
<%else%>
  <%-list_form_id = "list-form-#{f.object.id}"-%>
  <%-edit_form_id = "edit-form-#{f.object.id}"-%>
<%-end-%>
<div id =<%=list_form_id-%>>
  <%= render :partial => ''address_list'', :object =>
f.object, :locals =>
{:edit_form_div => edit_form_id} -%>
</div>
<div id =<%=edit_form_id-%> style="display: none">
  <fieldset>
    <legend>Details...</legend>
      <p>
        House name/number<br />
        <%= f.text_field :house -%>
      </p>
      <p>
        Street<br />
        <%= f.text_field :street -%>
      </p>
      <p>
        Town<br />
        <%= f.text_field :town -%>
      </p>
      <p>
        city<br />
        <%= f.text_field :city -%>
      </p>
      <p>
        Postcode<br />
        <%= f.text_field :postcode -%>
      </p>
    <%= link_to_function "Close",
     
"jQuery(''##{edit_form_id}'').hide(''slow'')"-%>
  </fieldset>
</div>

So the actual _address_form.html.erb acts as both a single item in the 
list and also the form which is hidden to start with and shown if a user 
wants to edit the details so it "grows" into place underneath the item
in the list.
I thought this would be a kinda neat solution to my problem of the form 
being too large to edit inline.
It''s the toggling of this div that I really need the ID for.

I also realise that I need to replace the UL and li tags with legal HTML 
and will probably just add some styling for the lists in my style sheets 
but there''s no point worrying about that until I at least have
something
working.

By the way. The above code all works really nicely except for the new 
records because of the ID not being unique if I add more than one 
address (and the same goes for eMails) I no longer have a unique ID and 
the wrong edit form is shown.

Hope that makes sense and if you have an alternative suggestion I''d
love
to hear it :-)
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Marnen Laibow-Koser wrote:
> James West wrote:
>> I need to auto generate a guaranteed to be unique number or string to
be
>> used something like this in a partial view <div
id=<%=unique_div_id%>>
> 
> First of all: what''s the purpose of this?  Why do you need all
these
> unique IDs?  I want to make sure you''ve got an appropriate
solution
> here.
> As far as your question, why not just use GUIDs?
> 
> Best,
> --
> Marnen Laibow-Koser
> http://www.marnen.org
> marnen-sbuyVjPbboAdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org
GUIDS may well be the solution I need :-)

Any idea howe to create them :-)

See my earlier response for the reason why I need them.
And thank you for taking so much trouble to understand my problem
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

On Aug 19, 1:07 pm, James West
<rails-mailing-l...-ARtvInVfO7ksV2N9l4h3zg@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
[...]
> GUIDS may well be the solution I need :-)
>
> Any idea howe to create them :-)
Um, yeah...use the uuid gem.  (Note: I''ve never done this, but
I''d be
surprised if it doesn''t work.)  See
http://github.com/assaf/uuid/tree/master
.

Or you could just increment a counter as you create fields, so that
you have a serial number to put in your id attributes.
>
> See my earlier response for the reason why I need them.
Your earlier response suggests that maybe GUIDs are the wrong thing.
If the objects are being dynamically created, then as long as Ruby
knows about them, even if they haven''t been saved to the DB, you can
at least use the object_id which is guaranteed to be unique...
> And thank you for taking so much trouble to understand my problem
You''re welcome!

Best,
--
Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
marnen-sbuyVjPbboAdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org

Marnen Laibow-Koser wrote:
> On Aug 19, 1:07�pm, James West
<rails-mailing-l...-ARtvInVfO7ksV2N9l4h3zg@public.gmane.org>
> wrote:
> [...]
> 
> Or you could just increment a counter as you create fields, so that
> you have a serial number to put in your id attributes.
> 
Now that has possibilities. I don''t know why I didn''t think of
that.
Probably because I had my head stuck on stateleseness when in fact I''m 
not hitting the server at all so that should work and I think it''s
going
to be the best solution.
> Your earlier response suggests that maybe GUIDs are the wrong thing.
I agree. It seems like overkill when simpler solutions should be 
available but I''m grasping at straws.
> If the objects are being dynamically created, then as long as Ruby
> knows about them, even if they haven''t been saved to the DB, you
can
> at least use the object_id which is guaranteed to be unique...
Unfortuntely object_id is not unique.
I changed the view to do this
  <%-list_form_id = "list-form-#{f.object_id}"-%>
  <%-edit_form_id = "edit-form-#{f.object_id}"-%>
which is fine for existing records.
It''s also fine for the first new record but subsequent new records show
the same object_id as the first new record.

This is the result of inspecting the HTML source (firebug) on my test 
data with 3 new records added after making the above change.

You can see that the last 3 all have the same ID
list-form-35646040

<ul>
<input id="user_addresses_attributes_0_id" type="hidden"
value="13"
name="user[addresses_attributes][0][id]"/>
<div id="list-form-35574920">
</div>
<div id="edit-form-35574920" style="display: none;">
</div>
<input id="user_addresses_attributes_1_id" type="hidden"
value="17"
name="user[addresses_attributes][1][id]"/>
<div id="list-form-35566050">
</div>
<div id="edit-form-35566050" style="display: none;">
</div>
<input id="user_addresses_attributes_2_id" type="hidden"
value="18"
name="user[addresses_attributes][2][id]"/>
<div id="list-form-35556290">
</div>
<div id="edit-form-35556290" style="display: none;">
</div>
<input id="user_addresses_attributes_3_id" type="hidden"
value="19"
name="user[addresses_attributes][3][id]"/>
<div id="list-form-35545190">
</div>
<div id="edit-form-35545190" style="display: none;">
</div>
<input id="user_addresses_attributes_4_id" type="hidden"
value="20"
name="user[addresses_attributes][4][id]"/>
<div id="list-form-35535650">
</div>
<div id="edit-form-35535650" style="display: none;">
</div>
<input id="user_addresses_attributes_5_id" type="hidden"
value="21"
name="user[addresses_attributes][5][id]"/>
<div id="list-form-35524420">
</div>
<div id="edit-form-35524420" style="display: none;">
</div>
<input id="user_addresses_attributes_6_id" type="hidden"
value="22"
name="user[addresses_attributes][6][id]"/>
<div id="list-form-35515770">
</div>
<div id="edit-form-35515770" style="display: none;">
</div>
<input id="user_addresses_attributes_7_id" type="hidden"
value="23"
name="user[addresses_attributes][7][id]"/>
<div id="list-form-35506520">
</div>
<div id="edit-form-35506520" style="display: none;">
</div>
<input id="user_addresses_attributes_8_id" type="hidden"
value="24"
name="user[addresses_attributes][8][id]"/>
<div id="list-form-35497950">
</div>
<div id="edit-form-35497950" style="display: none;">
</div>
<input id="user_addresses_attributes_9_id" type="hidden"
value="25"
name="user[addresses_attributes][9][id]"/>
<div id="list-form-35489260">
</div>
<div id="edit-form-35489260" style="display: none;">
</div>
<input id="user_addresses_attributes_10_id" type="hidden"
value="26"
name="user[addresses_attributes][10][id]"/>
<div id="list-form-35478670">
</div>
<div id="edit-form-35478670" style="display: none;">
</div>
<input id="user_addresses_attributes_11_id" type="hidden"
value="31"
name="user[addresses_attributes][11][id]"/>
<div id="list-form-35470130">
</div>
<div id="edit-form-35470130" style="display: none;">
</div>
<div id="list-form-35646040">
<li>
</li>
</div>
<div id="edit-form-35646040" style="display: none;">
</div>
<div id="list-form-35646040">
</div>
<div id="edit-form-35646040" style="display: none;">
</div>
<div id="list-form-35646040">
</div>
<div id="edit-form-35646040" style="display: none;">
</div>
</ul>
> 
> Best,
> --
> Marnen Laibow-Koser
> http://www.marnen.org
> marnen-sbuyVjPbboAdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Marnen Laibow-Koser wrote:
> On Aug 19, 1:07�pm, James West
<rails-mailing-l...-ARtvInVfO7ksV2N9l4h3zg@public.gmane.org>
> wrote:
> [...]
> 
> Or you could just increment a counter as you create fields, so that
> you have a serial number to put in your id attributes.
> Best,
> --
> Marnen Laibow-Koser
> http://www.marnen.org
> marnen-sbuyVjPbboAdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org

Problem solved

Partial now has this
<%if f.object.new_record? %>
  <%-list_form_id = "list-form-#{uid}"-%>
  <%-edit_form_id = "edit-form-#{uid}"-%>
<%-else-%>
  <%-list_form_id = "list-form-#{f.object_id}"-%>
  <%-edit_form_id = "edit-form-#{f.object_id}"-%>
<%-end-%>

The helper now does this
  def add_address_link(form_builder)
    link_to_function ''New address'' do |page|
      form_builder.fields_for :addresses, Address.new, :child_index => 
''NEW_RECORD'' do |f|
      html = render(:partial => ''address_form'', :locals
=> { :f => f,
:uid => ''NEW_RECORD'' })
        page << "jQuery(''#address_list 
ul'').append(''#{escape_javascript(html)}''.replace(/NEW_RECORD/g,
new
Date().getTime()))"
      end
    end
  end

So the div ID now matches the child_index which was the ideal solution 
that I set out to achieve and all is good.

3 $$£"!"£$ weeks I''ve been trying to figure out the best way
to deal
with this and it was so simple in the end.

Huge thanks to ALL that responded it all helped to kick my ideas in the 
right direction.

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