cannot figure out how to handle multi checkbox

rubyonrails-talk
1

I have a checkbox that is not tied to a model. Basically, here's what the beginning looks like in the view:

<% for entrant in @entrants %>           <tr class="<%= cycle("even", "odd") %>" >             <td><%= check_box ("to_check", entrant.firstname, {}, checked = "false") %></td>

This submits to a controller action that has only the following line:

@firstnames = params[:to_check]

I'm trying to display the results on the next page:

      <% for firstname in @firstnames %>             <br />             <%=h firstname %>

        <% end %>

This seems really simple. Right now it's displaying every firstname in the array whether it was checked or not. I tried another way and it only returned the first element in the array (so the names overwrote each other). How do I check in the controller action method to see which ones were checked? I'm coming from a Java web background and am a beginner with Ruby on Rails and have been Googling extensively, but I'm not understanding the examples, and the two recent Rails 2 books I have (one in PDF form) are confusing me as well.

I tried to figure out how to use check_box_tag as well in case that's more appropriate in this case, but I'm just not sure what to do. How should I change the form code and the controller so that I can retrieve only the firstnames that were checked? The HTML checkboxes should only send up the firstnames when checked.

Thanks so much!

2

take a look at #17 HABTM Checkboxes - RailsCasts

3

I had seen that, but it's not clear to me (and some of the people who commented on there agree with me). As I said, my checkboxes are not tied to a model.

Dejan Dimic wrote:

4

As I find somewhere on the net:

View (as many times as needed):

        <input id="item_selected_keywords" name="selected_keywords"         type="checkbox" value="exterior" />

Controller:

        selected_keywords = params[:selected_keywords]         @item.keywords = selected_keywords.join(" ")

5

Actually, I wanted the results in a collection or array to iterate over in my next view, so this is what worked for that last line in the controller:

@item.keywords = selected_keywords

I was just trying really hard to use the Rails view helpers for a checkbox, but if I have to use straight HTML, then by no means am I opposed. It just seems like one of those Rails helpers should work for me, but I figure it's because I don't understand them and when I look at the examples in the API docs, they don't seem to be applicable for my case (or I just don't get them).

Thanks...

Dejan Dimic wrote:

6

You can use the helper check_box_tag

See http://api.rubyonrails.com/classes/ActionView/Helpers/FormTagHelper.html#M001704