Create multiple objects in 1 form

rubyonrails-talk
1

I have an model in my rails app called Dog. I want to create a form where I can create an arbitrary amount of dogs with one request.

Here's the default for creating a dog form:

<h1>New dog</h1>

<% form_for(@dog) do |f| %>   <%= f.error_messages %>     <%= f.label :confirmations %><br />     <%= f.text_field :confirmations %>   </p>   <p>     <%= f.label :name%><br />     <%= f.text_field :name%>   </p>   <p>     <%= f.submit 'Create' %>   </p> <% end %>

with this controller code:

  def new     @dog= Dog.new

    respond_to do |format|       format.html # new.html.erb       format.xml { render :xml => @dog}     end   end

  def create     @dog= Dog.new(params[:dog])

    respond_to do |format|       if @ dog.save         flash[:notice] = 'dog was successfully created.'         format.html { redirect_to(@ dog) }         format.xml { render :xml => @ dog, :status => :created, :location => @ dog}       else         format.html { render :action => "new" }         format.xml { render :xml => @ dog.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }       end     end   end

So here I have a form where I can create a dog in the DB. How do I create a form (and the respective controller code) to create 2 or 3 dogs?

2

While I'm admittedly a rails newcomer--and probably destined to go back to PHP if I can't get some traction on some of my own forms issues--I can think of two practical ways to go about this:

    1. Have a successful create add some feedback to flash[:notice] and        redirect to another dog entry form. As long as the session (or        some other mechanism) is populating a foreign key into each dog        object so you can find the records again, you could do this an        arbitrary number of times.

    2. Use AJAX to get the number of dogs you want to enter, and then        create a nested form for each one.

Maybe some of the more experienced rails folk will have better suggestions for you.