Need some rails/database advice

You probably want two models/tables here: User and Guess. In this case, User has_many :guesses and Guess belongs_to user and phrase. The tricky part is to create a form that allows you to submit multiple models. First we need to build the defaults in the controller. This will create a new User with three guesses (assuming the phrase_id you want is given in the params):

def new
  @user = User.new
  3.times do { @user.guesses.build(:phrase_id => params[:phrase_id]) }
end

<%= start_form_tag :action => 'create' %>
<p>Name: <%= text_field :user, :name %></p>
<p>Email: <%= text_field :user, :email %></p>
<% @user.guesses.each_with_index do |guess, index| %>
  <% fields_for "guesses[#{index}]", guess do |f| %>
    <%= f.hidden_field :phrase_id %>
    <p>
      <%= index.ordinalize %> phrase guess:
      <%= f.text_field :content %>
    </p>
  <% end %>
<% end %>
<%= end_form_tag %>

def create
  @user = User.new(params[:user])
  params[:guesses].each_value { |guess| @user.guesses.build(guess) }
  if @user.save
    redirect_to :action => 'index'
  else
    render :action => 'new'
  end
end

I will be creating a tutorial on this subject which will go further in depth and explain a few things a bit more. You may want to keep an eye out for that.

First of all, how are you generating the @phrase instance variable? You are using it like it's a collection/array, but it's not plural.

Second, the phrase in the loop needs to be made an instance variable so the text_field helper can find it.

Third, the text field helper should specify 'phrase', not 'phrases'.

With those fixes, the code should look something like this:

<% for @phrase in @phrases %>
  <div>
    <label><%= @phrase.translation %></label>
    <%= text_field 'phrase', 'translation'  %>
  </div>
<% end %>

Have you tried renaming that to @phrases and using the code I gave above? It should be plural because that variable is holding more than one phrase.

The reason it is so difficult is you are using multiple models in one form. The text_field helper will give all the text fields the same name, but each text field for each phrase needs a different name so it is sent separately. See this article for some information on editing multiple models in one form.

You are on the right track. The text field name must be unique for it to be sent separate from the other text fields, so you need to append the id of the phrase to the name attribute to make it unique.

Are you using the text field to edit the "translation" attribute of the phrases? Or are you using it to create new "guess" models of some kind? Sorry if I'm confusing, I'm just not exactly sure what you are trying to do.

Last edited by ryanb (2006-10-05 19:11:43)

Sorry I never got back to you on this. Somehow I missed your reply. Here's how I would do it.

Create three tables, phrases, users, and guesses. In this case, User has_many :guesses and Guess belongs_to both :user and :phrase.

If I understand you correctly, you want to take, say, three phrases and have each user make a guess for each phrase. In the "new" controller action, create the default User model with blank Guesses, one for each phrase you want to guess. Like this:

def new
  @user = User.new
  # Fetch the phrases however you like here:
  Phrase.find(:all).each do |phrase|
    @user.guesses.build(:phrase => phrase)
  end
end

<%= start_form_tag :action => 'create' %>
<p>Name: <%= text_field :user, :name %></p>
<p>Email: <%= text_field :user, :email %></p>
<% @user.guesses.each_with_index do |guess, index| %>
  <% fields_for "guesses[#{index}]", guess do |f| %>
    <%= f.hidden_field :phrase_id %>
    <p>
      <%= guess.phrase.description %>
      <%= f.text_field :content %>
    </p>
  <% end %>
<% end %>
<%= end_form_tag %>

Saving the submission to the database is the same as I mentioned before:

ef create
  @user = User.new(params[:user])
  params[:guesses].each_value { |guess| @user.guesses.build(guess) }
  if @user.save
    redirect_to :action => 'index'
  else
    render :action => 'new'
  end
end

Actually it's not pulling anything from the database. Instead it should be using the @user instance variable that is created in the "new" controller action. Are you placing this form in the "new.rhtml" file? If so, the "new" controller action should be run before this is called and generate an empty @user model with empty guesses. This is just for setting up a default for the form to be generated from. After this form is submitted the models are recreated based on the values of the form and then they are saved to the database.

The guess model should look something like this:

class Guess < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user
  belongs_to :phrase
end