implementing has_many relationships

Thanks for the reply.  So, I'm still not quite sure where the code would go that adds an actor to a movie.  Can it be in the same controller (movie controller)?  If so, what would the code look like?  Again, I really appreciate any info on this.  I feel stupid for not being able to grasp this, but I think once I do, I'll be able to understand more and more about ruby and rails.

Dave

Oh, sorry, I didn't understand you completely before. Don't feel stupid; it takes a while to really get the rails way, but then you fly like you've never flow before!

OK, so there are no hard-and-fast rules about where it should go, but definitely in a controller. You could do something like this if you wanted to put it in the MoviesController:

class MoviesController < ApplicationController
  # the rest of your movies controller here, then:
  # this will show a single movie, which is where I am guessing
  # you would want to show the actors in that movie and add new actors
  def show
    @movie = Movie.find(params[:id])
  end
  # When the user clicks the "add actor" link on the show page
  # the will be taken here to fill in actor details
  def new_actor
    @movie = Movie.find(params[:id])
    @actor = @movie.actors.build
  end
  # When the user clicks the save button on the add actor page
  # they will be taken here and eventually back to the show page
  def create_actor
    @movie = Movie.find(params[:id])
    @actor = @movie.actors.build(params[:actor])
    if @actor.save
      flash[:notice] = "Your actor was successfully added."
      redirect_to :action => 'show', :id => @movie.id
    else
      render :template => "new_actor"
    end
  end
end

/* show.html.erb */
<h1><%= @movie.title %></h1>
<ul>
<% @movie.actors.each do |actor| %>
  <li><%= actor.name %></li>
<% end %>
</ul>
<%= link_to "add actor", :action => 'new_actor', :id => @movie.id %>
/* new_actor.html.erb */
<h1>New Actor for <%= @movie.title %></h1>
<% form_for :actor, @actor, :url => {:action => 'create_actor', :id => @movie.id} do |f| %>
  <label for='actor_name'>Name</form><br />
  <%= f.text_field :name %>
  <%= submit_tag "save" %>
<% end %>

Let us know if you have any more questions, there are a ton of very helpful people here just waiting.

oh wait... lol sorry im getting an error.

ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound in PagesController#create

Couldn't find Course without an ID

What??? This is my pages controller--

def create
    @course = Course.find(params[:id])
    @page = @course.pages.build(params[:page])

if.... else.... 

end

and my form for submitting that page--

<% form_for [@course, Page.new] do |f| %>

.....

And my pages belongs to course, and course has many pages.

Do you know why I'm getting this error? Usually whats the probleM? Thanks

IMPORTANT--

-------------

P.S. Ohhh this might be a key factor to my error- right now, if a user clicks on a Course, it brings them to the SHOW action of the COURSE controller. In the show page, i have a LINK_TO new_page_path... now.. does Rails know what Course I'm in when i click on that? or do i need to specify parameters in the LINK_tO, telling rails which course I'm in before creating the page?

=======

Thanks!

Try changing it to:

@course = Course.find(params[:course_id]).

If that doesnt work, view the page source when you have the new form rendered, and look for the course id hidden field. See what it's name attribute is set to. For instance if you have a name of    user[name], that's stored as: params[:user][:name]. However, if its just   user_id, then you would access it by: params[:user_id]

Very useful information, congratulations for the post and help.