rails 4.2.6.rc1 → 5.2.8.1

Sign up to get free protection for your applications and to get access to all the features.

Potentially problematic release.


This version of rails might be problematic. Click here for more details.

Files changed (218) hide show
  1. checksums.yaml +5 -5
  2. data/README.md +24 -12
  3. metadata +54 -248
  4. data/guides/CHANGELOG.md +0 -73
  5. data/guides/Rakefile +0 -79
  6. data/guides/assets/images/akshaysurve.jpg +0 -0
  7. data/guides/assets/images/belongs_to.png +0 -0
  8. data/guides/assets/images/book_icon.gif +0 -0
  9. data/guides/assets/images/bullet.gif +0 -0
  10. data/guides/assets/images/chapters_icon.gif +0 -0
  11. data/guides/assets/images/check_bullet.gif +0 -0
  12. data/guides/assets/images/credits_pic_blank.gif +0 -0
  13. data/guides/assets/images/csrf.png +0 -0
  14. data/guides/assets/images/edge_badge.png +0 -0
  15. data/guides/assets/images/favicon.ico +0 -0
  16. data/guides/assets/images/feature_tile.gif +0 -0
  17. data/guides/assets/images/footer_tile.gif +0 -0
  18. data/guides/assets/images/fxn.png +0 -0
  19. data/guides/assets/images/getting_started/article_with_comments.png +0 -0
  20. data/guides/assets/images/getting_started/challenge.png +0 -0
  21. data/guides/assets/images/getting_started/confirm_dialog.png +0 -0
  22. data/guides/assets/images/getting_started/forbidden_attributes_for_new_article.png +0 -0
  23. data/guides/assets/images/getting_started/form_with_errors.png +0 -0
  24. data/guides/assets/images/getting_started/index_action_with_edit_link.png +0 -0
  25. data/guides/assets/images/getting_started/new_article.png +0 -0
  26. data/guides/assets/images/getting_started/rails_welcome.png +0 -0
  27. data/guides/assets/images/getting_started/routing_error_no_controller.png +0 -0
  28. data/guides/assets/images/getting_started/routing_error_no_route_matches.png +0 -0
  29. data/guides/assets/images/getting_started/show_action_for_articles.png +0 -0
  30. data/guides/assets/images/getting_started/template_is_missing_articles_new.png +0 -0
  31. data/guides/assets/images/getting_started/unknown_action_create_for_articles.png +0 -0
  32. data/guides/assets/images/getting_started/unknown_action_new_for_articles.png +0 -0
  33. data/guides/assets/images/grey_bullet.gif +0 -0
  34. data/guides/assets/images/habtm.png +0 -0
  35. data/guides/assets/images/has_many.png +0 -0
  36. data/guides/assets/images/has_many_through.png +0 -0
  37. data/guides/assets/images/has_one.png +0 -0
  38. data/guides/assets/images/has_one_through.png +0 -0
  39. data/guides/assets/images/header_backdrop.png +0 -0
  40. data/guides/assets/images/header_tile.gif +0 -0
  41. data/guides/assets/images/i18n/demo_html_safe.png +0 -0
  42. data/guides/assets/images/i18n/demo_localized_pirate.png +0 -0
  43. data/guides/assets/images/i18n/demo_translated_en.png +0 -0
  44. data/guides/assets/images/i18n/demo_translated_pirate.png +0 -0
  45. data/guides/assets/images/i18n/demo_translation_missing.png +0 -0
  46. data/guides/assets/images/i18n/demo_untranslated.png +0 -0
  47. data/guides/assets/images/icons/README +0 -5
  48. data/guides/assets/images/icons/callouts/1.png +0 -0
  49. data/guides/assets/images/icons/callouts/10.png +0 -0
  50. data/guides/assets/images/icons/callouts/11.png +0 -0
  51. data/guides/assets/images/icons/callouts/12.png +0 -0
  52. data/guides/assets/images/icons/callouts/13.png +0 -0
  53. data/guides/assets/images/icons/callouts/14.png +0 -0
  54. data/guides/assets/images/icons/callouts/15.png +0 -0
  55. data/guides/assets/images/icons/callouts/2.png +0 -0
  56. data/guides/assets/images/icons/callouts/3.png +0 -0
  57. data/guides/assets/images/icons/callouts/4.png +0 -0
  58. data/guides/assets/images/icons/callouts/5.png +0 -0
  59. data/guides/assets/images/icons/callouts/6.png +0 -0
  60. data/guides/assets/images/icons/callouts/7.png +0 -0
  61. data/guides/assets/images/icons/callouts/8.png +0 -0
  62. data/guides/assets/images/icons/callouts/9.png +0 -0
  63. data/guides/assets/images/icons/caution.png +0 -0
  64. data/guides/assets/images/icons/example.png +0 -0
  65. data/guides/assets/images/icons/home.png +0 -0
  66. data/guides/assets/images/icons/important.png +0 -0
  67. data/guides/assets/images/icons/next.png +0 -0
  68. data/guides/assets/images/icons/note.png +0 -0
  69. data/guides/assets/images/icons/prev.png +0 -0
  70. data/guides/assets/images/icons/tip.png +0 -0
  71. data/guides/assets/images/icons/up.png +0 -0
  72. data/guides/assets/images/icons/warning.png +0 -0
  73. data/guides/assets/images/nav_arrow.gif +0 -0
  74. data/guides/assets/images/oscardelben.jpg +0 -0
  75. data/guides/assets/images/polymorphic.png +0 -0
  76. data/guides/assets/images/radar.png +0 -0
  77. data/guides/assets/images/rails4_features.png +0 -0
  78. data/guides/assets/images/rails_guides_kindle_cover.jpg +0 -0
  79. data/guides/assets/images/rails_guides_logo.gif +0 -0
  80. data/guides/assets/images/rails_logo_remix.gif +0 -0
  81. data/guides/assets/images/session_fixation.png +0 -0
  82. data/guides/assets/images/tab_grey.gif +0 -0
  83. data/guides/assets/images/tab_info.gif +0 -0
  84. data/guides/assets/images/tab_note.gif +0 -0
  85. data/guides/assets/images/tab_red.gif +0 -0
  86. data/guides/assets/images/tab_yellow.gif +0 -0
  87. data/guides/assets/images/tab_yellow.png +0 -0
  88. data/guides/assets/images/vijaydev.jpg +0 -0
  89. data/guides/assets/javascripts/guides.js +0 -59
  90. data/guides/assets/javascripts/jquery.min.js +0 -4
  91. data/guides/assets/javascripts/responsive-tables.js +0 -43
  92. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushAS3.js +0 -59
  93. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushAppleScript.js +0 -75
  94. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushBash.js +0 -59
  95. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushCSharp.js +0 -65
  96. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushColdFusion.js +0 -100
  97. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushCpp.js +0 -97
  98. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushCss.js +0 -91
  99. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushDelphi.js +0 -55
  100. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushDiff.js +0 -41
  101. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushErlang.js +0 -52
  102. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushGroovy.js +0 -67
  103. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushJScript.js +0 -52
  104. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushJava.js +0 -57
  105. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushJavaFX.js +0 -58
  106. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushPerl.js +0 -72
  107. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushPhp.js +0 -88
  108. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushPlain.js +0 -33
  109. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushPowerShell.js +0 -74
  110. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushPython.js +0 -64
  111. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushRuby.js +0 -55
  112. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushSass.js +0 -94
  113. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushScala.js +0 -51
  114. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushSql.js +0 -66
  115. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushVb.js +0 -56
  116. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shBrushXml.js +0 -69
  117. data/guides/assets/javascripts/syntaxhighlighter/shCore.js +0 -17
  118. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/fixes.css +0 -16
  119. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/kindle.css +0 -11
  120. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/main.css +0 -713
  121. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/print.css +0 -52
  122. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/reset.css +0 -43
  123. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/responsive-tables.css +0 -50
  124. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/style.css +0 -13
  125. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/syntaxhighlighter/shCore.css +0 -226
  126. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/syntaxhighlighter/shCoreDefault.css +0 -328
  127. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/syntaxhighlighter/shCoreDjango.css +0 -331
  128. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/syntaxhighlighter/shCoreEclipse.css +0 -339
  129. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/syntaxhighlighter/shCoreEmacs.css +0 -324
  130. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/syntaxhighlighter/shCoreFadeToGrey.css +0 -328
  131. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/syntaxhighlighter/shCoreMDUltra.css +0 -324
  132. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/syntaxhighlighter/shCoreMidnight.css +0 -324
  133. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/syntaxhighlighter/shCoreRDark.css +0 -324
  134. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/syntaxhighlighter/shThemeDefault.css +0 -117
  135. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/syntaxhighlighter/shThemeDjango.css +0 -120
  136. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/syntaxhighlighter/shThemeEclipse.css +0 -128
  137. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/syntaxhighlighter/shThemeEmacs.css +0 -113
  138. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/syntaxhighlighter/shThemeFadeToGrey.css +0 -117
  139. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/syntaxhighlighter/shThemeMDUltra.css +0 -113
  140. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/syntaxhighlighter/shThemeMidnight.css +0 -113
  141. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/syntaxhighlighter/shThemeRDark.css +0 -113
  142. data/guides/assets/stylesheets/syntaxhighlighter/shThemeRailsGuides.css +0 -116
  143. data/guides/bug_report_templates/action_controller_gem.rb +0 -47
  144. data/guides/bug_report_templates/action_controller_master.rb +0 -54
  145. data/guides/bug_report_templates/active_record_gem.rb +0 -40
  146. data/guides/bug_report_templates/active_record_master.rb +0 -49
  147. data/guides/bug_report_templates/generic_gem.rb +0 -15
  148. data/guides/bug_report_templates/generic_master.rb +0 -26
  149. data/guides/rails_guides/generator.rb +0 -248
  150. data/guides/rails_guides/helpers.rb +0 -53
  151. data/guides/rails_guides/indexer.rb +0 -68
  152. data/guides/rails_guides/kindle.rb +0 -119
  153. data/guides/rails_guides/levenshtein.rb +0 -37
  154. data/guides/rails_guides/markdown/renderer.rb +0 -82
  155. data/guides/rails_guides/markdown.rb +0 -167
  156. data/guides/rails_guides.rb +0 -63
  157. data/guides/source/2_2_release_notes.md +0 -435
  158. data/guides/source/2_3_release_notes.md +0 -621
  159. data/guides/source/3_0_release_notes.md +0 -611
  160. data/guides/source/3_1_release_notes.md +0 -559
  161. data/guides/source/3_2_release_notes.md +0 -568
  162. data/guides/source/4_0_release_notes.md +0 -279
  163. data/guides/source/4_1_release_notes.md +0 -730
  164. data/guides/source/4_2_release_notes.md +0 -877
  165. data/guides/source/_license.html.erb +0 -2
  166. data/guides/source/_welcome.html.erb +0 -23
  167. data/guides/source/action_controller_overview.md +0 -1192
  168. data/guides/source/action_mailer_basics.md +0 -757
  169. data/guides/source/action_view_overview.md +0 -1561
  170. data/guides/source/active_job_basics.md +0 -339
  171. data/guides/source/active_model_basics.md +0 -554
  172. data/guides/source/active_record_basics.md +0 -374
  173. data/guides/source/active_record_callbacks.md +0 -413
  174. data/guides/source/active_record_migrations.md +0 -1018
  175. data/guides/source/active_record_postgresql.md +0 -433
  176. data/guides/source/active_record_querying.md +0 -1781
  177. data/guides/source/active_record_validations.md +0 -1179
  178. data/guides/source/active_support_core_extensions.md +0 -3857
  179. data/guides/source/active_support_instrumentation.md +0 -488
  180. data/guides/source/api_documentation_guidelines.md +0 -361
  181. data/guides/source/asset_pipeline.md +0 -1304
  182. data/guides/source/association_basics.md +0 -2245
  183. data/guides/source/autoloading_and_reloading_constants.md +0 -1311
  184. data/guides/source/caching_with_rails.md +0 -379
  185. data/guides/source/command_line.md +0 -625
  186. data/guides/source/configuring.md +0 -1072
  187. data/guides/source/contributing_to_ruby_on_rails.md +0 -628
  188. data/guides/source/credits.html.erb +0 -80
  189. data/guides/source/debugging_rails_applications.md +0 -861
  190. data/guides/source/development_dependencies_install.md +0 -289
  191. data/guides/source/documents.yaml +0 -205
  192. data/guides/source/engines.md +0 -1412
  193. data/guides/source/form_helpers.md +0 -1024
  194. data/guides/source/generators.md +0 -676
  195. data/guides/source/getting_started.md +0 -2086
  196. data/guides/source/i18n.md +0 -1087
  197. data/guides/source/index.html.erb +0 -28
  198. data/guides/source/initialization.md +0 -704
  199. data/guides/source/kindle/copyright.html.erb +0 -1
  200. data/guides/source/kindle/layout.html.erb +0 -27
  201. data/guides/source/kindle/rails_guides.opf.erb +0 -52
  202. data/guides/source/kindle/toc.html.erb +0 -24
  203. data/guides/source/kindle/toc.ncx.erb +0 -64
  204. data/guides/source/kindle/welcome.html.erb +0 -5
  205. data/guides/source/layout.html.erb +0 -140
  206. data/guides/source/layouts_and_rendering.md +0 -1227
  207. data/guides/source/maintenance_policy.md +0 -78
  208. data/guides/source/nested_model_forms.md +0 -228
  209. data/guides/source/plugins.md +0 -444
  210. data/guides/source/rails_application_templates.md +0 -266
  211. data/guides/source/rails_on_rack.md +0 -336
  212. data/guides/source/routing.md +0 -1155
  213. data/guides/source/ruby_on_rails_guides_guidelines.md +0 -127
  214. data/guides/source/security.md +0 -1024
  215. data/guides/source/testing.md +0 -1132
  216. data/guides/source/upgrading_ruby_on_rails.md +0 -1186
  217. data/guides/source/working_with_javascript_in_rails.md +0 -407
  218. data/guides/w3c_validator.rb +0 -97
@@ -1,1024 +0,0 @@
1
- Form Helpers
2
- ============
3
-
4
- Forms in web applications are an essential interface for user input. However, form markup can quickly become tedious to write and maintain because of the need to handle form control naming and its numerous attributes. Rails does away with this complexity by providing view helpers for generating form markup. However, since these helpers have different use cases, developers need to know the differences between the helper methods before putting them to use.
5
-
6
- After reading this guide, you will know:
7
-
8
- * How to create search forms and similar kind of generic forms not representing any specific model in your application.
9
- * How to make model-centric forms for creating and editing specific database records.
10
- * How to generate select boxes from multiple types of data.
11
- * What date and time helpers Rails provides.
12
- * What makes a file upload form different.
13
- * How to post forms to external resources and specify setting an `authenticity_token`.
14
- * How to build complex forms.
15
-
16
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17
-
18
- NOTE: This guide is not intended to be a complete documentation of available form helpers and their arguments. Please visit [the Rails API documentation](http://api.rubyonrails.org/) for a complete reference.
19
-
20
- Dealing with Basic Forms
21
- ------------------------
22
-
23
- The most basic form helper is `form_tag`.
24
-
25
- ```erb
26
- <%= form_tag do %>
27
- Form contents
28
- <% end %>
29
- ```
30
-
31
- When called without arguments like this, it creates a `<form>` tag which, when submitted, will POST to the current page. For instance, assuming the current page is `/home/index`, the generated HTML will look like this (some line breaks added for readability):
32
-
33
- ```html
34
- <form accept-charset="UTF-8" action="/" method="post">
35
- <input name="utf8" type="hidden" value="&#x2713;" />
36
- <input name="authenticity_token" type="hidden" value="J7CBxfHalt49OSHp27hblqK20c9PgwJ108nDHX/8Cts=" />
37
- Form contents
38
- </form>
39
- ```
40
-
41
- You'll notice that the HTML contains `input` element with type `hidden`. This `input` is important, because the form cannot be successfully submitted without it. The hidden input element has name attribute of `utf8` enforces browsers to properly respect your form's character encoding and is generated for all forms whether their actions are "GET" or "POST". The second input element with name `authenticity_token` is a security feature of Rails called **cross-site request forgery protection**, and form helpers generate it for every non-GET form (provided that this security feature is enabled). You can read more about this in the [Security Guide](security.html#cross-site-request-forgery-csrf).
42
-
43
- ### A Generic Search Form
44
-
45
- One of the most basic forms you see on the web is a search form. This form contains:
46
-
47
- * a form element with "GET" method,
48
- * a label for the input,
49
- * a text input element, and
50
- * a submit element.
51
-
52
- To create this form you will use `form_tag`, `label_tag`, `text_field_tag`, and `submit_tag`, respectively. Like this:
53
-
54
- ```erb
55
- <%= form_tag("/search", method: "get") do %>
56
- <%= label_tag(:q, "Search for:") %>
57
- <%= text_field_tag(:q) %>
58
- <%= submit_tag("Search") %>
59
- <% end %>
60
- ```
61
-
62
- This will generate the following HTML:
63
-
64
- ```html
65
- <form accept-charset="UTF-8" action="/search" method="get">
66
- <input name="utf8" type="hidden" value="&#x2713;" />
67
- <label for="q">Search for:</label>
68
- <input id="q" name="q" type="text" />
69
- <input name="commit" type="submit" value="Search" />
70
- </form>
71
- ```
72
-
73
- TIP: For every form input, an ID attribute is generated from its name (`"q"` in above example). These IDs can be very useful for CSS styling or manipulation of form controls with JavaScript.
74
-
75
- Besides `text_field_tag` and `submit_tag`, there is a similar helper for _every_ form control in HTML.
76
-
77
- IMPORTANT: Always use "GET" as the method for search forms. This allows users to bookmark a specific search and get back to it. More generally Rails encourages you to use the right HTTP verb for an action.
78
-
79
- ### Multiple Hashes in Form Helper Calls
80
-
81
- The `form_tag` helper accepts 2 arguments: the path for the action and an options hash. This hash specifies the method of form submission and HTML options such as the form element's class.
82
-
83
- As with the `link_to` helper, the path argument doesn't have to be a string; it can be a hash of URL parameters recognizable by Rails' routing mechanism, which will turn the hash into a valid URL. However, since both arguments to `form_tag` are hashes, you can easily run into a problem if you would like to specify both. For instance, let's say you write this:
84
-
85
- ```ruby
86
- form_tag(controller: "people", action: "search", method: "get", class: "nifty_form")
87
- # => '<form accept-charset="UTF-8" action="/people/search?method=get&class=nifty_form" method="post">'
88
- ```
89
-
90
- Here, `method` and `class` are appended to the query string of the generated URL because even though you mean to write two hashes, you really only specified one. So you need to tell Ruby which is which by delimiting the first hash (or both) with curly brackets. This will generate the HTML you expect:
91
-
92
- ```ruby
93
- form_tag({controller: "people", action: "search"}, method: "get", class: "nifty_form")
94
- # => '<form accept-charset="UTF-8" action="/people/search" method="get" class="nifty_form">'
95
- ```
96
-
97
- ### Helpers for Generating Form Elements
98
-
99
- Rails provides a series of helpers for generating form elements such as
100
- checkboxes, text fields, and radio buttons. These basic helpers, with names
101
- ending in `_tag` (such as `text_field_tag` and `check_box_tag`), generate just a
102
- single `<input>` element. The first parameter to these is always the name of the
103
- input. When the form is submitted, the name will be passed along with the form
104
- data, and will make its way to the `params` hash in the controller with the
105
- value entered by the user for that field. For example, if the form contains `<%=
106
- text_field_tag(:query) %>`, then you would be able to get the value of this
107
- field in the controller with `params[:query]`.
108
-
109
- When naming inputs, Rails uses certain conventions that make it possible to submit parameters with non-scalar values such as arrays or hashes, which will also be accessible in `params`. You can read more about them in [chapter 7 of this guide](#understanding-parameter-naming-conventions). For details on the precise usage of these helpers, please refer to the [API documentation](http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/FormTagHelper.html).
110
-
111
- #### Checkboxes
112
-
113
- Checkboxes are form controls that give the user a set of options they can enable or disable:
114
-
115
- ```erb
116
- <%= check_box_tag(:pet_dog) %>
117
- <%= label_tag(:pet_dog, "I own a dog") %>
118
- <%= check_box_tag(:pet_cat) %>
119
- <%= label_tag(:pet_cat, "I own a cat") %>
120
- ```
121
-
122
- This generates the following:
123
-
124
- ```html
125
- <input id="pet_dog" name="pet_dog" type="checkbox" value="1" />
126
- <label for="pet_dog">I own a dog</label>
127
- <input id="pet_cat" name="pet_cat" type="checkbox" value="1" />
128
- <label for="pet_cat">I own a cat</label>
129
- ```
130
-
131
- The first parameter to `check_box_tag`, of course, is the name of the input. The second parameter, naturally, is the value of the input. This value will be included in the form data (and be present in `params`) when the checkbox is checked.
132
-
133
- #### Radio Buttons
134
-
135
- Radio buttons, while similar to checkboxes, are controls that specify a set of options in which they are mutually exclusive (i.e., the user can only pick one):
136
-
137
- ```erb
138
- <%= radio_button_tag(:age, "child") %>
139
- <%= label_tag(:age_child, "I am younger than 21") %>
140
- <%= radio_button_tag(:age, "adult") %>
141
- <%= label_tag(:age_adult, "I'm over 21") %>
142
- ```
143
-
144
- Output:
145
-
146
- ```html
147
- <input id="age_child" name="age" type="radio" value="child" />
148
- <label for="age_child">I am younger than 21</label>
149
- <input id="age_adult" name="age" type="radio" value="adult" />
150
- <label for="age_adult">I'm over 21</label>
151
- ```
152
-
153
- As with `check_box_tag`, the second parameter to `radio_button_tag` is the value of the input. Because these two radio buttons share the same name (`age`), the user will only be able to select one of them, and `params[:age]` will contain either `"child"` or `"adult"`.
154
-
155
- NOTE: Always use labels for checkbox and radio buttons. They associate text with a specific option and,
156
- by expanding the clickable region,
157
- make it easier for users to click the inputs.
158
-
159
- ### Other Helpers of Interest
160
-
161
- Other form controls worth mentioning are textareas, password fields,
162
- hidden fields, search fields, telephone fields, date fields, time fields,
163
- color fields, datetime fields, datetime-local fields, month fields, week fields,
164
- URL fields, email fields, number fields and range fields:
165
-
166
- ```erb
167
- <%= text_area_tag(:message, "Hi, nice site", size: "24x6") %>
168
- <%= password_field_tag(:password) %>
169
- <%= hidden_field_tag(:parent_id, "5") %>
170
- <%= search_field(:user, :name) %>
171
- <%= telephone_field(:user, :phone) %>
172
- <%= date_field(:user, :born_on) %>
173
- <%= datetime_field(:user, :meeting_time) %>
174
- <%= datetime_local_field(:user, :graduation_day) %>
175
- <%= month_field(:user, :birthday_month) %>
176
- <%= week_field(:user, :birthday_week) %>
177
- <%= url_field(:user, :homepage) %>
178
- <%= email_field(:user, :address) %>
179
- <%= color_field(:user, :favorite_color) %>
180
- <%= time_field(:task, :started_at) %>
181
- <%= number_field(:product, :price, in: 1.0..20.0, step: 0.5) %>
182
- <%= range_field(:product, :discount, in: 1..100) %>
183
- ```
184
-
185
- Output:
186
-
187
- ```html
188
- <textarea id="message" name="message" cols="24" rows="6">Hi, nice site</textarea>
189
- <input id="password" name="password" type="password" />
190
- <input id="parent_id" name="parent_id" type="hidden" value="5" />
191
- <input id="user_name" name="user[name]" type="search" />
192
- <input id="user_phone" name="user[phone]" type="tel" />
193
- <input id="user_born_on" name="user[born_on]" type="date" />
194
- <input id="user_meeting_time" name="user[meeting_time]" type="datetime" />
195
- <input id="user_graduation_day" name="user[graduation_day]" type="datetime-local" />
196
- <input id="user_birthday_month" name="user[birthday_month]" type="month" />
197
- <input id="user_birthday_week" name="user[birthday_week]" type="week" />
198
- <input id="user_homepage" name="user[homepage]" type="url" />
199
- <input id="user_address" name="user[address]" type="email" />
200
- <input id="user_favorite_color" name="user[favorite_color]" type="color" value="#000000" />
201
- <input id="task_started_at" name="task[started_at]" type="time" />
202
- <input id="product_price" max="20.0" min="1.0" name="product[price]" step="0.5" type="number" />
203
- <input id="product_discount" max="100" min="1" name="product[discount]" type="range" />
204
- ```
205
-
206
- Hidden inputs are not shown to the user but instead hold data like any textual input. Values inside them can be changed with JavaScript.
207
-
208
- IMPORTANT: The search, telephone, date, time, color, datetime, datetime-local,
209
- month, week, URL, email, number and range inputs are HTML5 controls.
210
- If you require your app to have a consistent experience in older browsers,
211
- you will need an HTML5 polyfill (provided by CSS and/or JavaScript).
212
- There is definitely [no shortage of solutions for this](https://github.com/Modernizr/Modernizr/wiki/HTML5-Cross-Browser-Polyfills), although a couple of popular tools at the moment are
213
- [Modernizr](http://www.modernizr.com/) and [yepnope](http://yepnopejs.com/),
214
- which provide a simple way to add functionality based on the presence of
215
- detected HTML5 features.
216
-
217
- TIP: If you're using password input fields (for any purpose), you might want to configure your application to prevent those parameters from being logged. You can learn about this in the [Security Guide](security.html#logging).
218
-
219
- Dealing with Model Objects
220
- --------------------------
221
-
222
- ### Model Object Helpers
223
-
224
- A particularly common task for a form is editing or creating a model object. While the `*_tag` helpers can certainly be used for this task they are somewhat verbose as for each tag you would have to ensure the correct parameter name is used and set the default value of the input appropriately. Rails provides helpers tailored to this task. These helpers lack the `_tag` suffix, for example `text_field`, `text_area`.
225
-
226
- For these helpers the first argument is the name of an instance variable and the second is the name of a method (usually an attribute) to call on that object. Rails will set the value of the input control to the return value of that method for the object and set an appropriate input name. If your controller has defined `@person` and that person's name is Henry then a form containing:
227
-
228
- ```erb
229
- <%= text_field(:person, :name) %>
230
- ```
231
-
232
- will produce output similar to
233
-
234
- ```erb
235
- <input id="person_name" name="person[name]" type="text" value="Henry"/>
236
- ```
237
-
238
- Upon form submission the value entered by the user will be stored in `params[:person][:name]`. The `params[:person]` hash is suitable for passing to `Person.new` or, if `@person` is an instance of Person, `@person.update`. While the name of an attribute is the most common second parameter to these helpers this is not compulsory. In the example above, as long as person objects have a `name` and a `name=` method Rails will be happy.
239
-
240
- WARNING: You must pass the name of an instance variable, i.e. `:person` or `"person"`, not an actual instance of your model object.
241
-
242
- Rails provides helpers for displaying the validation errors associated with a model object. These are covered in detail by the [Active Record Validations](./active_record_validations.html#displaying-validation-errors-in-views) guide.
243
-
244
- ### Binding a Form to an Object
245
-
246
- While this is an increase in comfort it is far from perfect. If `Person` has many attributes to edit then we would be repeating the name of the edited object many times. What we want to do is somehow bind a form to a model object, which is exactly what `form_for` does.
247
-
248
- Assume we have a controller for dealing with articles `app/controllers/articles_controller.rb`:
249
-
250
- ```ruby
251
- def new
252
- @article = Article.new
253
- end
254
- ```
255
-
256
- The corresponding view `app/views/articles/new.html.erb` using `form_for` looks like this:
257
-
258
- ```erb
259
- <%= form_for @article, url: {action: "create"}, html: {class: "nifty_form"} do |f| %>
260
- <%= f.text_field :title %>
261
- <%= f.text_area :body, size: "60x12" %>
262
- <%= f.submit "Create" %>
263
- <% end %>
264
- ```
265
-
266
- There are a few things to note here:
267
-
268
- * `@article` is the actual object being edited.
269
- * There is a single hash of options. Routing options are passed in the `:url` hash, HTML options are passed in the `:html` hash. Also you can provide a `:namespace` option for your form to ensure uniqueness of id attributes on form elements. The namespace attribute will be prefixed with underscore on the generated HTML id.
270
- * The `form_for` method yields a **form builder** object (the `f` variable).
271
- * Methods to create form controls are called **on** the form builder object `f`.
272
-
273
- The resulting HTML is:
274
-
275
- ```html
276
- <form accept-charset="UTF-8" action="/articles/create" method="post" class="nifty_form">
277
- <input id="article_title" name="article[title]" type="text" />
278
- <textarea id="article_body" name="article[body]" cols="60" rows="12"></textarea>
279
- <input name="commit" type="submit" value="Create" />
280
- </form>
281
- ```
282
-
283
- The name passed to `form_for` controls the key used in `params` to access the form's values. Here the name is `article` and so all the inputs have names of the form `article[attribute_name]`. Accordingly, in the `create` action `params[:article]` will be a hash with keys `:title` and `:body`. You can read more about the significance of input names in the parameter_names section.
284
-
285
- The helper methods called on the form builder are identical to the model object helpers except that it is not necessary to specify which object is being edited since this is already managed by the form builder.
286
-
287
- You can create a similar binding without actually creating `<form>` tags with the `fields_for` helper. This is useful for editing additional model objects with the same form. For example, if you had a `Person` model with an associated `ContactDetail` model, you could create a form for creating both like so:
288
-
289
- ```erb
290
- <%= form_for @person, url: {action: "create"} do |person_form| %>
291
- <%= person_form.text_field :name %>
292
- <%= fields_for @person.contact_detail do |contact_details_form| %>
293
- <%= contact_details_form.text_field :phone_number %>
294
- <% end %>
295
- <% end %>
296
- ```
297
-
298
- which produces the following output:
299
-
300
- ```html
301
- <form accept-charset="UTF-8" action="/people/create" class="new_person" id="new_person" method="post">
302
- <input id="person_name" name="person[name]" type="text" />
303
- <input id="contact_detail_phone_number" name="contact_detail[phone_number]" type="text" />
304
- </form>
305
- ```
306
-
307
- The object yielded by `fields_for` is a form builder like the one yielded by `form_for` (in fact `form_for` calls `fields_for` internally).
308
-
309
- ### Relying on Record Identification
310
-
311
- The Article model is directly available to users of the application, so - following the best practices for developing with Rails - you should declare it **a resource**:
312
-
313
- ```ruby
314
- resources :articles
315
- ```
316
-
317
- TIP: Declaring a resource has a number of side-affects. See [Rails Routing From the Outside In](routing.html#resource-routing-the-rails-default) for more information on setting up and using resources.
318
-
319
- When dealing with RESTful resources, calls to `form_for` can get significantly easier if you rely on **record identification**. In short, you can just pass the model instance and have Rails figure out model name and the rest:
320
-
321
- ```ruby
322
- ## Creating a new article
323
- # long-style:
324
- form_for(@article, url: articles_path)
325
- # same thing, short-style (record identification gets used):
326
- form_for(@article)
327
-
328
- ## Editing an existing article
329
- # long-style:
330
- form_for(@article, url: article_path(@article), html: {method: "patch"})
331
- # short-style:
332
- form_for(@article)
333
- ```
334
-
335
- Notice how the short-style `form_for` invocation is conveniently the same, regardless of the record being new or existing. Record identification is smart enough to figure out if the record is new by asking `record.new_record?`. It also selects the correct path to submit to and the name based on the class of the object.
336
-
337
- Rails will also automatically set the `class` and `id` of the form appropriately: a form creating an article would have `id` and `class` `new_article`. If you were editing the article with id 23, the `class` would be set to `edit_article` and the id to `edit_article_23`. These attributes will be omitted for brevity in the rest of this guide.
338
-
339
- WARNING: When you're using STI (single-table inheritance) with your models, you can't rely on record identification on a subclass if only their parent class is declared a resource. You will have to specify the model name, `:url`, and `:method` explicitly.
340
-
341
- #### Dealing with Namespaces
342
-
343
- If you have created namespaced routes, `form_for` has a nifty shorthand for that too. If your application has an admin namespace then
344
-
345
- ```ruby
346
- form_for [:admin, @article]
347
- ```
348
-
349
- will create a form that submits to the `ArticlesController` inside the admin namespace (submitting to `admin_article_path(@article)` in the case of an update). If you have several levels of namespacing then the syntax is similar:
350
-
351
- ```ruby
352
- form_for [:admin, :management, @article]
353
- ```
354
-
355
- For more information on Rails' routing system and the associated conventions, please see the [routing guide](routing.html).
356
-
357
- ### How do forms with PATCH, PUT, or DELETE methods work?
358
-
359
- The Rails framework encourages RESTful design of your applications, which means you'll be making a lot of "PATCH" and "DELETE" requests (besides "GET" and "POST"). However, most browsers _don't support_ methods other than "GET" and "POST" when it comes to submitting forms.
360
-
361
- Rails works around this issue by emulating other methods over POST with a hidden input named `"_method"`, which is set to reflect the desired method:
362
-
363
- ```ruby
364
- form_tag(search_path, method: "patch")
365
- ```
366
-
367
- output:
368
-
369
- ```html
370
- <form accept-charset="UTF-8" action="/search" method="post">
371
- <input name="_method" type="hidden" value="patch" />
372
- <input name="utf8" type="hidden" value="&#x2713;" />
373
- <input name="authenticity_token" type="hidden" value="f755bb0ed134b76c432144748a6d4b7a7ddf2b71" />
374
- ...
375
- </form>
376
- ```
377
-
378
- When parsing POSTed data, Rails will take into account the special `_method` parameter and acts as if the HTTP method was the one specified inside it ("PATCH" in this example).
379
-
380
- Making Select Boxes with Ease
381
- -----------------------------
382
-
383
- Select boxes in HTML require a significant amount of markup (one `OPTION` element for each option to choose from), therefore it makes the most sense for them to be dynamically generated.
384
-
385
- Here is what the markup might look like:
386
-
387
- ```html
388
- <select name="city_id" id="city_id">
389
- <option value="1">Lisbon</option>
390
- <option value="2">Madrid</option>
391
- ...
392
- <option value="12">Berlin</option>
393
- </select>
394
- ```
395
-
396
- Here you have a list of cities whose names are presented to the user. Internally the application only wants to handle their IDs so they are used as the options' value attribute. Let's see how Rails can help out here.
397
-
398
- ### The Select and Option Tags
399
-
400
- The most generic helper is `select_tag`, which - as the name implies - simply generates the `SELECT` tag that encapsulates an options string:
401
-
402
- ```erb
403
- <%= select_tag(:city_id, '<option value="1">Lisbon</option>...') %>
404
- ```
405
-
406
- This is a start, but it doesn't dynamically create the option tags. You can generate option tags with the `options_for_select` helper:
407
-
408
- ```html+erb
409
- <%= options_for_select([['Lisbon', 1], ['Madrid', 2], ...]) %>
410
-
411
- output:
412
-
413
- <option value="1">Lisbon</option>
414
- <option value="2">Madrid</option>
415
- ...
416
- ```
417
-
418
- The first argument to `options_for_select` is a nested array where each element has two elements: option text (city name) and option value (city id). The option value is what will be submitted to your controller. Often this will be the id of a corresponding database object but this does not have to be the case.
419
-
420
- Knowing this, you can combine `select_tag` and `options_for_select` to achieve the desired, complete markup:
421
-
422
- ```erb
423
- <%= select_tag(:city_id, options_for_select(...)) %>
424
- ```
425
-
426
- `options_for_select` allows you to pre-select an option by passing its value.
427
-
428
- ```html+erb
429
- <%= options_for_select([['Lisbon', 1], ['Madrid', 2], ...], 2) %>
430
-
431
- output:
432
-
433
- <option value="1">Lisbon</option>
434
- <option value="2" selected="selected">Madrid</option>
435
- ...
436
- ```
437
-
438
- Whenever Rails sees that the internal value of an option being generated matches this value, it will add the `selected` attribute to that option.
439
-
440
- TIP: The second argument to `options_for_select` must be exactly equal to the desired internal value. In particular if the value is the integer `2` you cannot pass `"2"` to `options_for_select` - you must pass `2`. Be aware of values extracted from the `params` hash as they are all strings.
441
-
442
- WARNING: when `:include_blank` or `:prompt` are not present, `:include_blank` is forced true if the select attribute `required` is true, display `size` is one and `multiple` is not true.
443
-
444
- You can add arbitrary attributes to the options using hashes:
445
-
446
- ```html+erb
447
- <%= options_for_select(
448
- [
449
- ['Lisbon', 1, { 'data-size' => '2.8 million' }],
450
- ['Madrid', 2, { 'data-size' => '3.2 million' }]
451
- ], 2
452
- ) %>
453
-
454
- output:
455
-
456
- <option value="1" data-size="2.8 million">Lisbon</option>
457
- <option value="2" selected="selected" data-size="3.2 million">Madrid</option>
458
- ...
459
- ```
460
-
461
- ### Select Boxes for Dealing with Models
462
-
463
- In most cases form controls will be tied to a specific database model and as you might expect Rails provides helpers tailored for that purpose. Consistent with other form helpers, when dealing with models you drop the `_tag` suffix from `select_tag`:
464
-
465
- ```ruby
466
- # controller:
467
- @person = Person.new(city_id: 2)
468
- ```
469
-
470
- ```erb
471
- # view:
472
- <%= select(:person, :city_id, [['Lisbon', 1], ['Madrid', 2], ...]) %>
473
- ```
474
-
475
- Notice that the third parameter, the options array, is the same kind of argument you pass to `options_for_select`. One advantage here is that you don't have to worry about pre-selecting the correct city if the user already has one - Rails will do this for you by reading from the `@person.city_id` attribute.
476
-
477
- As with other helpers, if you were to use the `select` helper on a form builder scoped to the `@person` object, the syntax would be:
478
-
479
- ```erb
480
- # select on a form builder
481
- <%= f.select(:city_id, ...) %>
482
- ```
483
-
484
- You can also pass a block to `select` helper:
485
-
486
- ```erb
487
- <%= f.select(:city_id) do %>
488
- <% [['Lisbon', 1], ['Madrid', 2]].each do |c| -%>
489
- <%= content_tag(:option, c.first, value: c.last) %>
490
- <% end %>
491
- <% end %>
492
- ```
493
-
494
- WARNING: If you are using `select` (or similar helpers such as `collection_select`, `select_tag`) to set a `belongs_to` association you must pass the name of the foreign key (in the example above `city_id`), not the name of association itself. If you specify `city` instead of `city_id` Active Record will raise an error along the lines of `ActiveRecord::AssociationTypeMismatch: City(#17815740) expected, got String(#1138750)` when you pass the `params` hash to `Person.new` or `update`. Another way of looking at this is that form helpers only edit attributes. You should also be aware of the potential security ramifications of allowing users to edit foreign keys directly.
495
-
496
- ### Option Tags from a Collection of Arbitrary Objects
497
-
498
- Generating options tags with `options_for_select` requires that you create an array containing the text and value for each option. But what if you had a `City` model (perhaps an Active Record one) and you wanted to generate option tags from a collection of those objects? One solution would be to make a nested array by iterating over them:
499
-
500
- ```erb
501
- <% cities_array = City.all.map { |city| [city.name, city.id] } %>
502
- <%= options_for_select(cities_array) %>
503
- ```
504
-
505
- This is a perfectly valid solution, but Rails provides a less verbose alternative: `options_from_collection_for_select`. This helper expects a collection of arbitrary objects and two additional arguments: the names of the methods to read the option **value** and **text** from, respectively:
506
-
507
- ```erb
508
- <%= options_from_collection_for_select(City.all, :id, :name) %>
509
- ```
510
-
511
- As the name implies, this only generates option tags. To generate a working select box you would need to use it in conjunction with `select_tag`, just as you would with `options_for_select`. When working with model objects, just as `select` combines `select_tag` and `options_for_select`, `collection_select` combines `select_tag` with `options_from_collection_for_select`.
512
-
513
- ```erb
514
- <%= collection_select(:person, :city_id, City.all, :id, :name) %>
515
- ```
516
-
517
- As with other helpers, if you were to use the `collection_select` helper on a form builder scoped to the `@person` object, the syntax would be:
518
-
519
- ```erb
520
- <%= f.collection_select(:city_id, City.all, :id, :name) %>
521
- ```
522
-
523
- To recap, `options_from_collection_for_select` is to `collection_select` what `options_for_select` is to `select`.
524
-
525
- NOTE: Pairs passed to `options_for_select` should have the name first and the id second, however with `options_from_collection_for_select` the first argument is the value method and the second the text method.
526
-
527
- ### Time Zone and Country Select
528
-
529
- To leverage time zone support in Rails, you have to ask your users what time zone they are in. Doing so would require generating select options from a list of pre-defined TimeZone objects using `collection_select`, but you can simply use the `time_zone_select` helper that already wraps this:
530
-
531
- ```erb
532
- <%= time_zone_select(:person, :time_zone) %>
533
- ```
534
-
535
- There is also `time_zone_options_for_select` helper for a more manual (therefore more customizable) way of doing this. Read the API documentation to learn about the possible arguments for these two methods.
536
-
537
- Rails _used_ to have a `country_select` helper for choosing countries, but this has been extracted to the [country_select plugin](https://github.com/stefanpenner/country_select). When using this, be aware that the exclusion or inclusion of certain names from the list can be somewhat controversial (and was the reason this functionality was extracted from Rails).
538
-
539
- Using Date and Time Form Helpers
540
- --------------------------------
541
-
542
- You can choose not to use the form helpers generating HTML5 date and time input fields and use the alternative date and time helpers. These date and time helpers differ from all the other form helpers in two important respects:
543
-
544
- * Dates and times are not representable by a single input element. Instead you have several, one for each component (year, month, day etc.) and so there is no single value in your `params` hash with your date or time.
545
- * Other helpers use the `_tag` suffix to indicate whether a helper is a barebones helper or one that operates on model objects. With dates and times, `select_date`, `select_time` and `select_datetime` are the barebones helpers, `date_select`, `time_select` and `datetime_select` are the equivalent model object helpers.
546
-
547
- Both of these families of helpers will create a series of select boxes for the different components (year, month, day etc.).
548
-
549
- ### Barebones Helpers
550
-
551
- The `select_*` family of helpers take as their first argument an instance of `Date`, `Time` or `DateTime` that is used as the currently selected value. You may omit this parameter, in which case the current date is used. For example:
552
-
553
- ```erb
554
- <%= select_date Date.today, prefix: :start_date %>
555
- ```
556
-
557
- outputs (with actual option values omitted for brevity)
558
-
559
- ```html
560
- <select id="start_date_year" name="start_date[year]"> ... </select>
561
- <select id="start_date_month" name="start_date[month]"> ... </select>
562
- <select id="start_date_day" name="start_date[day]"> ... </select>
563
- ```
564
-
565
- The above inputs would result in `params[:start_date]` being a hash with keys `:year`, `:month`, `:day`. To get an actual `Date`, `Time` or `DateTime` object you would have to extract these values and pass them to the appropriate constructor, for example:
566
-
567
- ```ruby
568
- Date.civil(params[:start_date][:year].to_i, params[:start_date][:month].to_i, params[:start_date][:day].to_i)
569
- ```
570
-
571
- The `:prefix` option is the key used to retrieve the hash of date components from the `params` hash. Here it was set to `start_date`, if omitted it will default to `date`.
572
-
573
- ### Model Object Helpers
574
-
575
- `select_date` does not work well with forms that update or create Active Record objects as Active Record expects each element of the `params` hash to correspond to one attribute.
576
- The model object helpers for dates and times submit parameters with special names; when Active Record sees parameters with such names it knows they must be combined with the other parameters and given to a constructor appropriate to the column type. For example:
577
-
578
- ```erb
579
- <%= date_select :person, :birth_date %>
580
- ```
581
-
582
- outputs (with actual option values omitted for brevity)
583
-
584
- ```html
585
- <select id="person_birth_date_1i" name="person[birth_date(1i)]"> ... </select>
586
- <select id="person_birth_date_2i" name="person[birth_date(2i)]"> ... </select>
587
- <select id="person_birth_date_3i" name="person[birth_date(3i)]"> ... </select>
588
- ```
589
-
590
- which results in a `params` hash like
591
-
592
- ```ruby
593
- {'person' => {'birth_date(1i)' => '2008', 'birth_date(2i)' => '11', 'birth_date(3i)' => '22'}}
594
- ```
595
-
596
- When this is passed to `Person.new` (or `update`), Active Record spots that these parameters should all be used to construct the `birth_date` attribute and uses the suffixed information to determine in which order it should pass these parameters to functions such as `Date.civil`.
597
-
598
- ### Common Options
599
-
600
- Both families of helpers use the same core set of functions to generate the individual select tags and so both accept largely the same options. In particular, by default Rails will generate year options 5 years either side of the current year. If this is not an appropriate range, the `:start_year` and `:end_year` options override this. For an exhaustive list of the available options, refer to the [API documentation](http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/DateHelper.html).
601
-
602
- As a rule of thumb you should be using `date_select` when working with model objects and `select_date` in other cases, such as a search form which filters results by date.
603
-
604
- NOTE: In many cases the built-in date pickers are clumsy as they do not aid the user in working out the relationship between the date and the day of the week.
605
-
606
- ### Individual Components
607
-
608
- Occasionally you need to display just a single date component such as a year or a month. Rails provides a series of helpers for this, one for each component `select_year`, `select_month`, `select_day`, `select_hour`, `select_minute`, `select_second`. These helpers are fairly straightforward. By default they will generate an input field named after the time component (for example, "year" for `select_year`, "month" for `select_month` etc.) although this can be overridden with the `:field_name` option. The `:prefix` option works in the same way that it does for `select_date` and `select_time` and has the same default value.
609
-
610
- The first parameter specifies which value should be selected and can either be an instance of a `Date`, `Time` or `DateTime`, in which case the relevant component will be extracted, or a numerical value. For example:
611
-
612
- ```erb
613
- <%= select_year(2009) %>
614
- <%= select_year(Time.now) %>
615
- ```
616
-
617
- will produce the same output if the current year is 2009 and the value chosen by the user can be retrieved by `params[:date][:year]`.
618
-
619
- Uploading Files
620
- ---------------
621
-
622
- A common task is uploading some sort of file, whether it's a picture of a person or a CSV file containing data to process. The most important thing to remember with file uploads is that the rendered form's encoding **MUST** be set to "multipart/form-data". If you use `form_for`, this is done automatically. If you use `form_tag`, you must set it yourself, as per the following example.
623
-
624
- The following two forms both upload a file.
625
-
626
- ```erb
627
- <%= form_tag({action: :upload}, multipart: true) do %>
628
- <%= file_field_tag 'picture' %>
629
- <% end %>
630
-
631
- <%= form_for @person do |f| %>
632
- <%= f.file_field :picture %>
633
- <% end %>
634
- ```
635
-
636
- Rails provides the usual pair of helpers: the barebones `file_field_tag` and the model oriented `file_field`. The only difference with other helpers is that you cannot set a default value for file inputs as this would have no meaning. As you would expect in the first case the uploaded file is in `params[:picture]` and in the second case in `params[:person][:picture]`.
637
-
638
- ### What Gets Uploaded
639
-
640
- The object in the `params` hash is an instance of a subclass of `IO`. Depending on the size of the uploaded file it may in fact be a `StringIO` or an instance of `File` backed by a temporary file. In both cases the object will have an `original_filename` attribute containing the name the file had on the user's computer and a `content_type` attribute containing the MIME type of the uploaded file. The following snippet saves the uploaded content in `#{Rails.root}/public/uploads` under the same name as the original file (assuming the form was the one in the previous example).
641
-
642
- ```ruby
643
- def upload
644
- uploaded_io = params[:person][:picture]
645
- File.open(Rails.root.join('public', 'uploads', uploaded_io.original_filename), 'wb') do |file|
646
- file.write(uploaded_io.read)
647
- end
648
- end
649
- ```
650
-
651
- Once a file has been uploaded, there are a multitude of potential tasks, ranging from where to store the files (on disk, Amazon S3, etc) and associating them with models to resizing image files and generating thumbnails. The intricacies of this are beyond the scope of this guide, but there are several libraries designed to assist with these. Two of the better known ones are [CarrierWave](https://github.com/jnicklas/carrierwave) and [Paperclip](https://github.com/thoughtbot/paperclip).
652
-
653
- NOTE: If the user has not selected a file the corresponding parameter will be an empty string.
654
-
655
- ### Dealing with Ajax
656
-
657
- Unlike other forms making an asynchronous file upload form is not as simple as providing `form_for` with `remote: true`. With an Ajax form the serialization is done by JavaScript running inside the browser and since JavaScript cannot read files from your hard drive the file cannot be uploaded. The most common workaround is to use an invisible iframe that serves as the target for the form submission.
658
-
659
- Customizing Form Builders
660
- -------------------------
661
-
662
- As mentioned previously the object yielded by `form_for` and `fields_for` is an instance of `FormBuilder` (or a subclass thereof). Form builders encapsulate the notion of displaying form elements for a single object. While you can of course write helpers for your forms in the usual way, you can also subclass `FormBuilder` and add the helpers there. For example:
663
-
664
- ```erb
665
- <%= form_for @person do |f| %>
666
- <%= text_field_with_label f, :first_name %>
667
- <% end %>
668
- ```
669
-
670
- can be replaced with
671
-
672
- ```erb
673
- <%= form_for @person, builder: LabellingFormBuilder do |f| %>
674
- <%= f.text_field :first_name %>
675
- <% end %>
676
- ```
677
-
678
- by defining a `LabellingFormBuilder` class similar to the following:
679
-
680
- ```ruby
681
- class LabellingFormBuilder < ActionView::Helpers::FormBuilder
682
- def text_field(attribute, options={})
683
- label(attribute) + super
684
- end
685
- end
686
- ```
687
-
688
- If you reuse this frequently you could define a `labeled_form_for` helper that automatically applies the `builder: LabellingFormBuilder` option.
689
-
690
- The form builder used also determines what happens when you do
691
-
692
- ```erb
693
- <%= render partial: f %>
694
- ```
695
-
696
- If `f` is an instance of `FormBuilder` then this will render the `form` partial, setting the partial's object to the form builder. If the form builder is of class `LabellingFormBuilder` then the `labelling_form` partial would be rendered instead.
697
-
698
- Understanding Parameter Naming Conventions
699
- ------------------------------------------
700
-
701
- As you've seen in the previous sections, values from forms can be at the top level of the `params` hash or nested in another hash. For example, in a standard `create`
702
- action for a Person model, `params[:person]` would usually be a hash of all the attributes for the person to create. The `params` hash can also contain arrays, arrays of hashes and so on.
703
-
704
- Fundamentally HTML forms don't know about any sort of structured data, all they generate is name-value pairs, where pairs are just plain strings. The arrays and hashes you see in your application are the result of some parameter naming conventions that Rails uses.
705
-
706
- TIP: You may find you can try out examples in this section faster by using the console to directly invoke Rack's parameter parser. For example,
707
-
708
- ```ruby
709
- Rack::Utils.parse_query "name=fred&phone=0123456789"
710
- # => {"name"=>"fred", "phone"=>"0123456789"}
711
- ```
712
-
713
- ### Basic Structures
714
-
715
- The two basic structures are arrays and hashes. Hashes mirror the syntax used for accessing the value in `params`. For example, if a form contains:
716
-
717
- ```html
718
- <input id="person_name" name="person[name]" type="text" value="Henry"/>
719
- ```
720
-
721
- the `params` hash will contain
722
-
723
- ```erb
724
- {'person' => {'name' => 'Henry'}}
725
- ```
726
-
727
- and `params[:person][:name]` will retrieve the submitted value in the controller.
728
-
729
- Hashes can be nested as many levels as required, for example:
730
-
731
- ```html
732
- <input id="person_address_city" name="person[address][city]" type="text" value="New York"/>
733
- ```
734
-
735
- will result in the `params` hash being
736
-
737
- ```ruby
738
- {'person' => {'address' => {'city' => 'New York'}}}
739
- ```
740
-
741
- Normally Rails ignores duplicate parameter names. If the parameter name contains an empty set of square brackets `[]` then they will be accumulated in an array. If you wanted users to be able to input multiple phone numbers, you could place this in the form:
742
-
743
- ```html
744
- <input name="person[phone_number][]" type="text"/>
745
- <input name="person[phone_number][]" type="text"/>
746
- <input name="person[phone_number][]" type="text"/>
747
- ```
748
-
749
- This would result in `params[:person][:phone_number]` being an array containing the inputted phone numbers.
750
-
751
- ### Combining Them
752
-
753
- We can mix and match these two concepts. One element of a hash might be an array as in the previous example, or you can have an array of hashes. For example, a form might let you create any number of addresses by repeating the following form fragment
754
-
755
- ```html
756
- <input name="addresses[][line1]" type="text"/>
757
- <input name="addresses[][line2]" type="text"/>
758
- <input name="addresses[][city]" type="text"/>
759
- ```
760
-
761
- This would result in `params[:addresses]` being an array of hashes with keys `line1`, `line2` and `city`. Rails decides to start accumulating values in a new hash whenever it encounters an input name that already exists in the current hash.
762
-
763
- There's a restriction, however, while hashes can be nested arbitrarily, only one level of "arrayness" is allowed. Arrays can usually be replaced by hashes; for example, instead of having an array of model objects, one can have a hash of model objects keyed by their id, an array index or some other parameter.
764
-
765
- WARNING: Array parameters do not play well with the `check_box` helper. According to the HTML specification unchecked checkboxes submit no value. However it is often convenient for a checkbox to always submit a value. The `check_box` helper fakes this by creating an auxiliary hidden input with the same name. If the checkbox is unchecked only the hidden input is submitted and if it is checked then both are submitted but the value submitted by the checkbox takes precedence. When working with array parameters this duplicate submission will confuse Rails since duplicate input names are how it decides when to start a new array element. It is preferable to either use `check_box_tag` or to use hashes instead of arrays.
766
-
767
- ### Using Form Helpers
768
-
769
- The previous sections did not use the Rails form helpers at all. While you can craft the input names yourself and pass them directly to helpers such as `text_field_tag` Rails also provides higher level support. The two tools at your disposal here are the name parameter to `form_for` and `fields_for` and the `:index` option that helpers take.
770
-
771
- You might want to render a form with a set of edit fields for each of a person's addresses. For example:
772
-
773
- ```erb
774
- <%= form_for @person do |person_form| %>
775
- <%= person_form.text_field :name %>
776
- <% @person.addresses.each do |address| %>
777
- <%= person_form.fields_for address, index: address.id do |address_form|%>
778
- <%= address_form.text_field :city %>
779
- <% end %>
780
- <% end %>
781
- <% end %>
782
- ```
783
-
784
- Assuming the person had two addresses, with ids 23 and 45 this would create output similar to this:
785
-
786
- ```html
787
- <form accept-charset="UTF-8" action="/people/1" class="edit_person" id="edit_person_1" method="post">
788
- <input id="person_name" name="person[name]" type="text" />
789
- <input id="person_address_23_city" name="person[address][23][city]" type="text" />
790
- <input id="person_address_45_city" name="person[address][45][city]" type="text" />
791
- </form>
792
- ```
793
-
794
- This will result in a `params` hash that looks like
795
-
796
- ```ruby
797
- {'person' => {'name' => 'Bob', 'address' => {'23' => {'city' => 'Paris'}, '45' => {'city' => 'London'}}}}
798
- ```
799
-
800
- Rails knows that all these inputs should be part of the person hash because you
801
- called `fields_for` on the first form builder. By specifying an `:index` option
802
- you're telling Rails that instead of naming the inputs `person[address][city]`
803
- it should insert that index surrounded by [] between the address and the city.
804
- This is often useful as it is then easy to locate which Address record
805
- should be modified. You can pass numbers with some other significance,
806
- strings or even `nil` (which will result in an array parameter being created).
807
-
808
- To create more intricate nestings, you can specify the first part of the input
809
- name (`person[address]` in the previous example) explicitly:
810
-
811
- ```erb
812
- <%= fields_for 'person[address][primary]', address, index: address do |address_form| %>
813
- <%= address_form.text_field :city %>
814
- <% end %>
815
- ```
816
-
817
- will create inputs like
818
-
819
- ```html
820
- <input id="person_address_primary_1_city" name="person[address][primary][1][city]" type="text" value="bologna" />
821
- ```
822
-
823
- As a general rule the final input name is the concatenation of the name given to `fields_for`/`form_for`, the index value and the name of the attribute. You can also pass an `:index` option directly to helpers such as `text_field`, but it is usually less repetitive to specify this at the form builder level rather than on individual input controls.
824
-
825
- As a shortcut you can append [] to the name and omit the `:index` option. This is the same as specifying `index: address` so
826
-
827
- ```erb
828
- <%= fields_for 'person[address][primary][]', address do |address_form| %>
829
- <%= address_form.text_field :city %>
830
- <% end %>
831
- ```
832
-
833
- produces exactly the same output as the previous example.
834
-
835
- Forms to External Resources
836
- ---------------------------
837
-
838
- Rails' form helpers can also be used to build a form for posting data to an external resource. However, at times it can be necessary to set an `authenticity_token` for the resource; this can be done by passing an `authenticity_token: 'your_external_token'` parameter to the `form_tag` options:
839
-
840
- ```erb
841
- <%= form_tag 'http://farfar.away/form', authenticity_token: 'external_token' do %>
842
- Form contents
843
- <% end %>
844
- ```
845
-
846
- Sometimes when submitting data to an external resource, like a payment gateway, the fields that can be used in the form are limited by an external API and it may be undesirable to generate an `authenticity_token`. To not send a token, simply pass `false` to the `:authenticity_token` option:
847
-
848
- ```erb
849
- <%= form_tag 'http://farfar.away/form', authenticity_token: false do %>
850
- Form contents
851
- <% end %>
852
- ```
853
-
854
- The same technique is also available for `form_for`:
855
-
856
- ```erb
857
- <%= form_for @invoice, url: external_url, authenticity_token: 'external_token' do |f| %>
858
- Form contents
859
- <% end %>
860
- ```
861
-
862
- Or if you don't want to render an `authenticity_token` field:
863
-
864
- ```erb
865
- <%= form_for @invoice, url: external_url, authenticity_token: false do |f| %>
866
- Form contents
867
- <% end %>
868
- ```
869
-
870
- Building Complex Forms
871
- ----------------------
872
-
873
- Many apps grow beyond simple forms editing a single object. For example, when creating a `Person` you might want to allow the user to (on the same form) create multiple address records (home, work, etc.). When later editing that person the user should be able to add, remove or amend addresses as necessary.
874
-
875
- ### Configuring the Model
876
-
877
- Active Record provides model level support via the `accepts_nested_attributes_for` method:
878
-
879
- ```ruby
880
- class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
881
- has_many :addresses
882
- accepts_nested_attributes_for :addresses
883
- end
884
-
885
- class Address < ActiveRecord::Base
886
- belongs_to :person
887
- end
888
- ```
889
-
890
- This creates an `addresses_attributes=` method on `Person` that allows you to create, update and (optionally) destroy addresses.
891
-
892
- ### Nested Forms
893
-
894
- The following form allows a user to create a `Person` and its associated addresses.
895
-
896
- ```html+erb
897
- <%= form_for @person do |f| %>
898
- Addresses:
899
- <ul>
900
- <%= f.fields_for :addresses do |addresses_form| %>
901
- <li>
902
- <%= addresses_form.label :kind %>
903
- <%= addresses_form.text_field :kind %>
904
-
905
- <%= addresses_form.label :street %>
906
- <%= addresses_form.text_field :street %>
907
- ...
908
- </li>
909
- <% end %>
910
- </ul>
911
- <% end %>
912
- ```
913
-
914
-
915
- When an association accepts nested attributes `fields_for` renders its block once for every element of the association. In particular, if a person has no addresses it renders nothing. A common pattern is for the controller to build one or more empty children so that at least one set of fields is shown to the user. The example below would result in 2 sets of address fields being rendered on the new person form.
916
-
917
- ```ruby
918
- def new
919
- @person = Person.new
920
- 2.times { @person.addresses.build}
921
- end
922
- ```
923
-
924
- The `fields_for` yields a form builder. The parameters' name will be what
925
- `accepts_nested_attributes_for` expects. For example, when creating a user with
926
- 2 addresses, the submitted parameters would look like:
927
-
928
- ```ruby
929
- {
930
- 'person' => {
931
- 'name' => 'John Doe',
932
- 'addresses_attributes' => {
933
- '0' => {
934
- 'kind' => 'Home',
935
- 'street' => '221b Baker Street'
936
- },
937
- '1' => {
938
- 'kind' => 'Office',
939
- 'street' => '31 Spooner Street'
940
- }
941
- }
942
- }
943
- }
944
- ```
945
-
946
- The keys of the `:addresses_attributes` hash are unimportant, they need merely be different for each address.
947
-
948
- If the associated object is already saved, `fields_for` autogenerates a hidden input with the `id` of the saved record. You can disable this by passing `include_id: false` to `fields_for`. You may wish to do this if the autogenerated input is placed in a location where an input tag is not valid HTML or when using an ORM where children do not have an `id`.
949
-
950
- ### The Controller
951
-
952
- As usual you need to
953
- [whitelist the parameters](action_controller_overview.html#strong-parameters) in
954
- the controller before you pass them to the model:
955
-
956
- ```ruby
957
- def create
958
- @person = Person.new(person_params)
959
- # ...
960
- end
961
-
962
- private
963
- def person_params
964
- params.require(:person).permit(:name, addresses_attributes: [:id, :kind, :street])
965
- end
966
- ```
967
-
968
- ### Removing Objects
969
-
970
- You can allow users to delete associated objects by passing `allow_destroy: true` to `accepts_nested_attributes_for`
971
-
972
- ```ruby
973
- class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
974
- has_many :addresses
975
- accepts_nested_attributes_for :addresses, allow_destroy: true
976
- end
977
- ```
978
-
979
- If the hash of attributes for an object contains the key `_destroy` with a value
980
- of `1` or `true` then the object will be destroyed. This form allows users to
981
- remove addresses:
982
-
983
- ```erb
984
- <%= form_for @person do |f| %>
985
- Addresses:
986
- <ul>
987
- <%= f.fields_for :addresses do |addresses_form| %>
988
- <li>
989
- <%= addresses_form.check_box :_destroy%>
990
- <%= addresses_form.label :kind %>
991
- <%= addresses_form.text_field :kind %>
992
- ...
993
- </li>
994
- <% end %>
995
- </ul>
996
- <% end %>
997
- ```
998
-
999
- Don't forget to update the whitelisted params in your controller to also include
1000
- the `_destroy` field:
1001
-
1002
- ```ruby
1003
- def person_params
1004
- params.require(:person).
1005
- permit(:name, addresses_attributes: [:id, :kind, :street, :_destroy])
1006
- end
1007
- ```
1008
-
1009
- ### Preventing Empty Records
1010
-
1011
- It is often useful to ignore sets of fields that the user has not filled in. You can control this by passing a `:reject_if` proc to `accepts_nested_attributes_for`. This proc will be called with each hash of attributes submitted by the form. If the proc returns `false` then Active Record will not build an associated object for that hash. The example below only tries to build an address if the `kind` attribute is set.
1012
-
1013
- ```ruby
1014
- class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
1015
- has_many :addresses
1016
- accepts_nested_attributes_for :addresses, reject_if: lambda {|attributes| attributes['kind'].blank?}
1017
- end
1018
- ```
1019
-
1020
- As a convenience you can instead pass the symbol `:all_blank` which will create a proc that will reject records where all the attributes are blank excluding any value for `_destroy`.
1021
-
1022
- ### Adding Fields on the Fly
1023
-
1024
- Rather than rendering multiple sets of fields ahead of time you may wish to add them only when a user clicks on an 'Add new address' button. Rails does not provide any built-in support for this. When generating new sets of fields you must ensure the key of the associated array is unique - the current JavaScript date (milliseconds after the epoch) is a common choice.