Accessing data in a separate table w/out relationship

rubyonrails-talk
1

Acts_as_dropdown may be what you want:

http://delynnberry.com/pages/acts_as_dropdown/

Cheers, Max

2

Use

<%= collection_select 'model_1_name', 'comment', Comment.find(:all), 'id', 'name' %>

and read up here:

http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowtoUseFormOptionHelpers

Cheers, Max