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authorRyan Bigg <radarlistener@gmail.com>2009-04-04 16:13:18 +1000
committerRyan Bigg <radarlistener@gmail.com>2009-04-04 16:13:18 +1000
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Merge branch 'master' of git@github.com:lifo/docrails
* 'master' of git@github.com:lifo/docrails: (319 commits) deletes screencast promo in prologue, its proper place is the References section Typo fix list -> index in caching guide, RESTifies some examples, revised conventions here and there Tech edit of caching guide from Gregg Pollack Fix typo in comment: hide_actions -> hide_action Fix two typos in a comment in config/initializers/backtrace_silencers.rb With -> with in a title Clear up a little confusing wording in Routing Guide. copyedited minor details in the rack on rails guide remove piece of UrlWriter documentation claiming that you can access named routes as its class methods Add note about change to session options TRUNCATE is also a MySQL DDL statement, so document this is a possible caveat when using transactions and savepoints. Improve documentation for ActiveResource::Validations, fix typos Fix typos in ActiveResource::Base documentation, use present tense, reword confusing sentences Update ActiveResource::Connection documentation to use present tense Fix typos in Active Resource README Fix a small typo ensure authors get warnings about broken links, and ensure end users don't in guides generator, warn about duplicate header IDs only if WARN_DUPLICATE_HEADERS ...
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+h2. Rails nested model forms
+
+Creating a form for a model _and_ its associations can become quite tedious. Therefor Rails provides helpers to assist in dealing with the complexities of generating these forms _and_ the required CRUD operations to create, update, and destroy associations.
+
+In this guide you will:
+
+* do stuff
+
+endprologue.
+
+NOTE: This guide assumes the user knows how to use the "Rails form helpers":form_helpers.html in general. Also, it’s *not* an API reference. For a complete reference please visit "the Rails API documentation":http://api.rubyonrails.org/.
+
+
+h3. Model setup
+
+To be able to use the nested model functionality in your forms, the model will need to support some basic operations.
+
+First of all, it needs to define a writer method for the attribute that corresponds to the association you are building a nested model form for. The +fields_for+ form helper will look for this method to decide whether or not a nested model form should be build.
+
+If the associated object is an array a form builder will be yielded for each object, else only a single form builder will be yielded.
+
+Consider a Person model with an associated Address. When asked to yield a nested FormBuilder for the +:address+ attribute, the +fields_for+ form helper will look for a method on the Person instance named +address_attributes=+.
+
+h4. ActiveRecord::Base model
+
+For an ActiveRecord::Base model and association this writer method is commonly defined with the +accepts_nested_attributes_for+ class method:
+
+h5. has_one
+
+<ruby>
+class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
+ has_one :address
+ accepts_nested_attributes_for :address
+end
+</ruby>
+
+h5. belongs_to
+
+<ruby>
+class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
+ belongs_to :firm
+ accepts_nested_attributes_for :firm
+end
+</ruby>
+
+h5. has_many / has_and_belongs_to_many
+
+<ruby>
+class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
+ has_many :projects
+ accepts_nested_attributes_for :projects
+end
+</ruby>
+
+h4. Custom model
+
+As you might have inflected from this explanation, you _don’t_ necessarily need an ActiveRecord::Base model to use this functionality. The following examples are sufficient to enable the nested model form behaviour:
+
+h5. Single associated object
+
+<ruby>
+class Person
+ def address
+ Address.new
+ end
+
+ def address_attributes=(attributes)
+ # ...
+ end
+end
+</ruby>
+
+h5. Association collection
+
+<ruby>
+class Person
+ def projects
+ [Project.new, Project.new]
+ end
+
+ def projects_attributes=(attributes)
+ # ...
+ end
+end
+</ruby>
+
+NOTE: See (TODO) in the advanced section for more information on how to deal with the CRUD operations in your custom model.
+
+h3. Views
+
+h4. Controller code
+
+A nested model form will _only_ be build if the associated object(s) exist. This means that for a new model instance you would probably want to build the associated object(s) first.
+
+Consider the following typical RESTful controller which will prepare a new Person instance and its +address+ and +projects+ associations before rendering the +new+ template:
+
+<ruby>
+class PeopleController < ActionController:Base
+ def new
+ @person = Person.new
+ @person.built_address
+ 2.times { @person.projects.build }
+ end
+
+ def create
+ @person = Person.new(params[:person])
+ if @person.save
+ # ...
+ end
+ end
+end
+</ruby>
+
+NOTE: Obviously the instantiation of the associated object(s) can become tedious and not DRY, so you might want to move that into the model itself. ActiveRecord::Base provides an +after_initialize+ callback which is a good way to refactor this.
+
+h4. Form code
+
+Now that you have a model instance, with the appropriate methods and associated object(s), you can start building the nested model form.
+
+h5. Standard form
+
+Start out with a regular RESTful form:
+
+<erb>
+<% form_for @person do |f| %>
+ <%= f.text_field :name %>
+<% end %>
+</erb>
+
+This will generate the following html:
+
+<html>
+<form action="/people" class="new_person" id="new_person" method="post">
+ <input id="person_name" name="person[name]" size="30" type="text" />
+</form>
+</html>
+
+h5. Nested form for a single associated object
+
+Now add a nested form for the +address+ association:
+
+<erb>
+<% form_for @person do |f| %>
+ <%= f.text_field :name %>
+
+ <% f.fields_for :address do |af| %>
+ <%= f.text_field :street %>
+ <% end %>
+<% end %>
+</erb>
+
+This generates:
+
+<html>
+<form action="/people" class="new_person" id="new_person" method="post">
+ <input id="person_name" name="person[name]" size="30" type="text" />
+
+ <input id="person_address_attributes_street" name="person[address_attributes][street]" size="30" type="text" />
+</form>
+</html>
+
+Notice that +fields_for+ recognized the +address+ as an association for which a nested model form should be build by the way it has namespaced the +name+ attribute.
+
+When this form is posted the Rails parameter parser will construct a hash like the following:
+
+<ruby>
+{
+ "person" => {
+ "name" => "Eloy Duran",
+ "address_attributes" => {
+ "street" => "Nieuwe Prinsengracht"
+ }
+ }
+}
+</ruby>
+
+That’s it. The controller will simply pass this hash on to the model from the +create+ action. The model will then handle building the +address+ association for you and automatically save it when the parent (+person+) is saved.
+
+h5. Nested form for a collection of associated objects
+
+The form code for an association collection is pretty similar to that of a single associated object:
+
+<erb>
+<% form_for @person do |f| %>
+ <%= f.text_field :name %>
+
+ <% f.fields_for :projects do |pf| %>
+ <%= f.text_field :name %>
+ <% end %>
+<% end %>
+</erb>
+
+Which generates:
+
+<html>
+<form action="/people" class="new_person" id="new_person" method="post">
+ <input id="person_name" name="person[name]" size="30" type="text" />
+
+ <input id="person_projects_attributes_0_name" name="person[projects_attributes][0][name]" size="30" type="text" />
+ <input id="person_projects_attributes_1_name" name="person[projects_attributes][1][name]" size="30" type="text" />
+</form>
+</html>
+
+As you can see it has generated 2 +project name+ inputs, one for each new +project+ that’s build in the controllers +new+ action. Only this time the +name+ attribute of the input contains a digit as an extra namespace. This will be parsed by the Rails parameter parser as:
+
+<ruby>
+{
+ "person" => {
+ "name" => "Eloy Duran",
+ "projects_attributes" => {
+ "0" => { "name" => "Project 1" },
+ "1" => { "name" => "Project 2" }
+ }
+ }
+}
+</ruby>
+
+You can basically see the +projects_attributes+ hash as an array of attribute hashes. One for each model instance.
+
+NOTE: The reason that +fields_for+ constructed a form which would result in a hash instead of an array is that it won't work for any forms nested deeper than one level deep.
+
+TIP: You _can_ however pass an array to the writer method generated by +accepts_nested_attributes_for+ if you're using plain Ruby or some other API access. See (TODO) for more info and example. \ No newline at end of file