Any way to use a radio button attached to record id during a create

rubyonrails-talk
1

I'm doing a list of family members, each with a radio button for head of household. After the household record and the records for each person are created, it is easy to set the hoh field to the person wanted. The problem comes if I try to set this field before the create. Then the field is 0, and this isn't updated after the record is created. Any way to fix this? By the way, I'm using rails 2.3.9 until I have these problems worked out to get a clean app to upgrade..

Thanks

Bob <bsm2th@gmail.com>

2

Show us how you are setting the field, presumably in create in the controller.

Colin

3

I was using a variable called hoh in the household (master) record. This was holding the id number of the person (child) record selected. This worked fine for existing records, but got lost with records created at the time of the save, as these records had no id yet.

Someone else suggested that I put the hoh variable in the person records, but if I do this, each radio button is separate, and there is no way to allow only one selection.

It seems to me that there must be a way to do this with Active Record Callbacks. After the record is created, it has an id. Couldn't I test each person record after create, and if it has the radio button selected, pass the id to the Household.hoh variable..

But for this... Is there a way to tell if the radio button is selected if it points to a variable somewhere else ?? Or is there a way to get Rails to just do this at the right time the way it does with parent/ child records, setting all id's and parent_id's ??

Too many question marks.

Bob

4

I am sorry but I have not much idea of what you are talking about. The first thing to do is to split up the problem into the Model, View Controller paradigm. You are mixing them up talking about things like ActiveRecord callbacks looking at radio buttons for example. Radio buttons are meaningless when you are talking about database records, they are only meaningful in views and controllers.

So the first question to consider is what data do you need in the database and what are the relationships between the models (has_many, belongs_to etc). Only when you have got that straight then worry about how to implement the views and controllers to give the user interface that you want.

So do you know what is in the database and what the relationships are? If so give us that information and then explain what the problem is.

Colin

5

I'm doing a list of family members, each with aradiobutton for head of household. After the household record and the records for each person are created, it is easy to set the hoh field to the person wanted. The problem comes if I try to set this field before the create. Then the field is 0, and this isn't updated after the record is created.

Show us how you are setting the field, presumably increatein the controller.

Colin

I was using a variable called hoh in the household (master) record. This was holding the id number of the person (child) record selected. This worked fine for existing records, but got lost with records created at the time of the save, as these records had no id yet.

Someone else suggested that I put the hoh variable in the person records, but if I do this, each radio button is separate, and there is no way to allow only one selection.

It seems to me that there must be a way to do this with Active Record Callbacks. After the record is created, it has an id. Couldn't I test each person record after create, and if it has the radio button selected, pass the id to the Household.hoh variable..

But for this... Is there a way to tell if the radio button is selected if it points to a variable somewhere else ?? Or is there a way to get Rails to just do this at the right time the way it does with parent/ child records, setting all id's and parent_id's ??

Too many question marks.

Use an :after_create callback in those cases; you will have the ID at that point and you can use it. Remember, you will need to set any relationship keys directly, not at the object level, since you can't call save again in an after_create (I don't think). Here's my after_save method from a similar setup:

  def set_primary     self.update_attributes( :role_id => self.roles.first.id ) if self.roles.first   end

This is from inside a Title, which has_many roles, has_many people through roles, and belongs_to one role (designating the "primary" person, like the author or the editor -- the one that people think of when they're looking for that book, even though lots of people may have contributed to it).

I needed to go this route because I was using Ryan Bates' nested_form gem, and so I was adding roles to a title that hadn't been saved yet -- very similar to your setup if I recall correctly. Since I can't designate a primary in the #new method, because nothing has an ID yet, I use this callback to sort things out, and count on my editors to always choose the most important person first. I have a new_record? test in my view to hide the radio buttons in that case, and show them in the #edit view of the same form.

Walter

6

Use an :after_create callback in those cases; you will have the ID at that point and you can use it. Remember, you will need to set any relationship keys directly, not at the object level, since you can't call save again in an after_create (I don't think). Here's my after_save method from a similar setup:

  def set_primary     self.update_attributes( :role_id => self.roles.first.id ) if self.roles.first   end

This is from inside a Title, which has_many roles, has_many people through roles, and belongs_to one role (designating the "primary" person, like the author or the editor -- the one that people think of when they're looking for that book, even though lots of people may have contributed to it).

I needed to go this route because I was using Ryan Bates' nested_form gem, and so I was adding roles to a title that hadn't been saved yet -- very similar to your setup if I recall correctly. Since I can't designate a primary in the #new method, because nothing has anIDyet, I use this callback to sort things out, and count on my editors to always choose the most important person first. I have a new_record? test in my view to hide theradiobuttons in that case, and show them in the #edit view of the same form.

Walter

This is very close to what I wanted. It seems you were having the same problem as I am using the new_record? test to remove the radio_buttons. I am trying to find a way to get the id after the create and putting it in the Household.hoh field. Maybe in the after_create callback for each Person object. But how can I access the radio button and see who was selected from there ?? I see you used .first to set the id. Will this help me see who was selected by the radio buttons ??

Bob

7

Use an :after_create callback in those cases; you will have the ID at that point and you can use it. Remember, you will need to set any relationship keys directly, not at the object level, since you can't call save again in an after_create (I don't think). Here's my after_save method from a similar setup:

def set_primary    self.update_attributes( :role_id => self.roles.first.id ) if self.roles.first end

This is from inside a Title, which has_many roles, has_many people through roles, and belongs_to one role (designating the "primary" person, like the author or the editor -- the one that people think of when they're looking for that book, even though lots of people may have contributed to it).

I needed to go this route because I was using Ryan Bates' nested_form gem, and so I was adding roles to a title that hadn't been saved yet -- very similar to your setup if I recall correctly. Since I can't designate a primary in the #new method, because nothing has anIDyet, I use this callback to sort things out, and count on my editors to always choose the most important person first. I have a new_record? test in my view to hide theradiobuttons in that case, and show them in the #edit view of the same form.

Walter

This is very close to what I wanted. It seems you were having the same problem as I am using the new_record? test to remove the radio_buttons. I am trying to find a way to get the id after the create and putting it in the Household.hoh field. Maybe in the after_create callback for each Person object. But how can I access the radio button and see who was selected from there ?? I see you used .first to set the id. Will this help me see who was selected by the radio buttons ??

No, this only hacks around the problem of setting the primary role in a new title object by choosing the first member of the has_many roles collection within the controller. The actual method of getting the role from the radio button is much simpler and more direct.

  <%= radio_button_tag 'title[role_id]', f.object.id, (@title.role_id == f.object.id) %>

That's inside a partial called _role_fields.html.erb, and it's filled in using the nested_form gem as I mentioned earlier. It's just named correctly to act on the parent title object, and inside the partial, f.object points to the individual role object.

Walter

8

Almost there... Thanks for the help.

The latest problem is with the radio button using a variable in the parent to store the selected child record id. Setting this in the view doesn't allow new records to have an id yet. Do you know a way of having each radio button put a one in a variable that is located in each child record ? If so, then it should be easy for after_create to test each child record for that value and when it's found there should already be an id to put in the parent variable.

Thanks again

Bob

9

> > Use an :after_create callback in those cases; you will have the ID at > > that point and you can use it. Remember, you will need to set any > > relationship keys directly, not at the object level, since you can't > > call save again in an after_create (I don't think). Here's my > > after_save method from a similar setup:

> > def set_primary > > self.update_attributes( :role_id => self.roles.first.id ) if > > self.roles.first > > end

> >> This is from inside a Title, which has_many roles, has_many people through roles, and belongs_to one role (designating the "primary" person, like the author or the editor -- the one that people think of when they're looking for that book, even though lots of people may have contributed to it).

> >> I needed to go this route because I was using Ryan Bates' nested_form gem, and so I was adding roles to a title that hadn't been saved yet -- very similar to your setup if I recall correctly. Since I can't designate a primary in the #new method, because nothing has anIDyet, I use this callback to sort things out, and count on my editors to always choose the most important person first. I have a new_record? test in my view to hide theradiobuttons in that case, and show them in the #edit view of the same form.

> >> Walter

> > This is very close to what I wanted. It seems you were having the same > > problem as I am using the new_record? test to remove the > > radio_buttons. I am trying to find a way to get the id after the > > create and putting it in the Household.hoh field. Maybe in the > > after_create callback for each Person object. But how can I access the > >radiobuttonand see who was selected from there ?? I see you > > used .first to set the id. Will this help me see who was selected by > > theradiobuttons ??

> No, this only hacks around the problem of setting the primary role in a new title object by choosing the first member of the has_many roles collection within the controller. The actual method of getting the role from theradiobuttonis much simpler and more direct.

> <%= radio_button_tag 'title[role_id]', f.object.id, (@title.role_id == f.object.id) %>

> That's inside a partial called _role_fields.html.erb, and it's filled in using the nested_form gem as I mentioned earlier. It's just named correctly to act on the parent title object, and inside the partial, f.object points to the individual role object.

> Walter

> > Bob

> > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. > > To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk@googlegroups.com. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. > > For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en.

Almost there... Thanks for the help.

The latest problem is with the radio button using a variable in the parent to store the selected child record id. Setting this in the view doesn't allow new records to have an id yet. Do you know a way of having each radio button put a one in a variable that is located in each child record ? If so, then it should be easy for after_create to test each child record for that value and when it's found there should already be an id to put in the parent variable.

Thanks again

Bob

10

Use an :after_create callback in those cases; you will have the ID at that point and you can use it. Remember, you will need to set any relationship keys directly, not at the object level, since you can't call save again in an after_create (I don't think). Here's my after_save method from a similar setup:

def set_primary    self.update_attributes( :role_id => self.roles.first.id ) if self.roles.first end

This is from inside a Title, which has_many roles, has_many people through roles, and belongs_to one role (designating the "primary" person, like the author or the editor -- the one that people think of when they're looking for that book, even though lots of people may have contributed to it).

I needed to go this route because I was using Ryan Bates' nested_form gem, and so I was adding roles to a title that hadn't been saved yet -- very similar to your setup if I recall correctly. Since I can't designate a primary in the #new method, because nothing has anIDyet, I use this callback to sort things out, and count on my editors to always choose the most important person first. I have a new_record? test in my view to hide theradiobuttons in that case, and show them in the #edit view of the same form.

Walter

This is very close to what I wanted. It seems you were having the same problem as I am using the new_record? test to remove the radio_buttons. I am trying to find a way to get the id after the create and putting it in the Household.hoh field. Maybe in the after_create callback for each Person object. But how can I access the radiobuttonand see who was selected from there ?? I see you used .first to set the id. Will this help me see who was selected by theradiobuttons ??

No, this only hacks around the problem of setting the primary role in a new title object by choosing the first member of the has_many roles collection within the controller. The actual method of getting the role from theradiobuttonis much simpler and more direct.

        <%= radio_button_tag 'title[role_id]', f.object.id, (@title.role_id == f.object.id) %>

That's inside a partial called _role_fields.html.erb, and it's filled in using the nested_form gem as I mentioned earlier. It's just named correctly to act on the parent title object, and inside the partial, f.object points to the individual role object.

Walter

Bob

-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en.

Almost there... Thanks for the help.

The latest problem is with the radio button using a variable in the parent to store the selected child record id. Setting this in the view doesn't allow new records to have an id yet. Do you know a way of having each radio button put a one in a variable that is located in each child record ? If so, then it should be easy for after_create to test each child record for that value and when it's found there should already be an id to put in the parent variable.

If I'm understanding what you're asking, you've hit the exact problem that caused me to use the after_create method instead of creating the proper form elements in the view. I know there is probably a way to do this with the normal Rails relationships and an auto_save flag (that's off the top of my head) but I couldn't ever find a way to make it work.

What I settled for in the end was a combination of Ryan Bates' nested_form gem and this after_create callback to catch the edge cases.

Walter

11

Is there a way to have a radio button inside a partial affecting a variable from that record so that each record has a variable with one instance set to 1 ?? I can't find a way to do this.. First step toward what I posted about last time..

Thanks Bob