Rails - Apr 2011 - the "store locator problem".

I''m not sure what Rails elements come into play here, so I''m
just
calling this the "store locator problem".  Bear with me...

Assume I have a database-backed Store model.  And that it has a
"locator" method that returns a list of NEW store objects -- NOT YET
SAVED IN THE DB -- that are near a given zip code.  (Why?  Because the
stores are found via an external service and we don''t want to clog our
db with records we''re never going to use.)

class Store < ActiveModel::Base

  # Return a (possibly empty) list of instantiated but not yet saved
Store objects
  def self.locate(zip_code)
    ...
  end

end

I''m trying to figure out how best to implement the following
interaction:

1. user visits a page.  the page contains a form prompting for a zip
code.

2. user enters zip code and presses "find stores" button

3. STILL ON THE SAME PAGE, the user is presented with a list of matching
stores with a "choose this one" button (or link) next to each one.

4. when the user clicks on "choose this one", that store is saved to
the
DB (and a bunch of other stuff happens)

5. the user is redirected to /stores/nnn, where NNN is the id of the
newly created store.

There''s two catches

* I want to implement this first version using NO javascript.  (I''ll
write unobtrusive JS later...)

* I want all the above steps to be rendered in a partial (e.g.
app/views/stores/_locator.html.erb), so I can reuse it in more than one
place in my system.

I have just about everything working: the stores/_locator partial calls
stores_locator_path => StoresController#locate(zip) =>
Store.locate(zip).  Then StoresController calls render(:partial =>
stores/_found_stores) to display the list of stores in place.

My one problem: the StoresController#locate method needs to know where
the request came from, so it knows what page to render (see step 3
above).

Is there a clean way to do this?  (I can imagine passing something in
the params list, but that seems messy.)  Or is there a better approach
overall?

Thanks.

- ff

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Update: After mulling this over for a few hours, I have concluded that 
I''m asking two distinct questions:

Q1: If I have a page that contains a partial that contains a form that 
invokes an action in MyController, how do I return the results to the 
original page?

A1a: I could (somehow) arrange to have the form emit the 
controller/method combo that would get me back to the original page, 
and, after MyController has done its thing, call 
render(''controller/method'') to get back to it.

A1b: I could use redirect_to env["HTTP_REFERRER"], but unlike 
render(...), that''s a separate transaction, so I''ll need to
store my
temporary Store objects somewhere.  See Q2.

Q2: Where can I squirrel away unsaved Store records across transactions 
(e.g. if I use redirect_to as per A1b above)?

A2a: Use the session hash.  (This feels really wrong)

A2b: Stop fighting Rails and save the Store records.  Create a 
StoreLocator model, make it responsible for creating Store records and 
pruning the ones we don''t use.  Or something like that.

Any better suggestions?

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If you could use a tiny bit of JS in the form...

1. The new action: Render a form with the zip code and an empty list
of stores.

2. The create action: Form submits the zip code, but no store data.
Take the zip code, find the stores, and render the new action again,
this time with the list of stores. Use a small set of hidden variables
to send the selected store data back. Use a small bit of JS to set the
hidden variables to the values of the store selected.

3. The creation action: Form submits the zip code and the hidden
variables, which now contain the values of the store needed to create
the store.

If the list was small, I suppose you could have a bunch of hidden
variables, one ''set'' for each store. Workable, but a little
ugly and
perhaps has limits.

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