The requirements: A user should be able to create, update and edit a questionnaire for others to complete.
The view should consist of a text_field for each of the categories and under each category there should be 10 text_fields for questions(the ones empty are to be ignored)
The models Questionnaire has_many :categories has_many :questions accepts_nested_attributes_for :categories, :allow_destroy => true accepts_nested_attributes_for :questions, :allow_destroy => true Category has_many :questions belongs_to :questionnaire
Question has_many :answers belongs_to :questionnaire belongs_to :category
Controller
def new @questionnaire = Questionnaire.new @questionnaire.prepare_categories #builds the different categories with default data 10.times {@questionnaire.questions.build} #This seams to have no effect when I want to use fields_for :questions in the view end
Questionnaire new view:
<% form_for @questionnaire do |f| %> <% @counter = 1 %> <% f.fields_for :categories do |cat_form|%> topic: <%= cat_form.text_field :topic %><br/> category text: <%= cat_form.text_field :category_text %><br/> <% 10.times do %> question text: <%= text_field_tag "questionnaire [categories_attributes][#{@counter}][questions_text]" %><br/> <% end %> <% @counter += 1 %> <%end%> <%= f.submit %> <% end %>
I could work with this solution but there are multiple problems with it:
1) Its ugly 2) When validations fail and the form is rerendered then I have to make another form to handle this.
My current workaround is to save the the questionnaire in the database in the new action and the categories to assign the questions with the categories by using the category_ids as hidden fields, disgusting :-/
I was hoping I could build the categories and questions in memory in the above view and then use fields_for for both questions and categories, I havent been able to make this work though.
I havent been able to find any help from googling on handling this issue.