default value if textfield is empty

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hey all,

im not sure where to set a default value if a textfield is empty?

For now i do it in the controller, and check if the submitted parameter is blank. But this seems not to be the best solution...

Thanks for your help!

2

What is the purpose of the default value? Do you want a newly created row in the database to have a default value if none is specified? If so, thats where the default value goes. Do you need some sort of default value when processing some sort of logic that the form is the input source for? Then the default value should go somewhere close to where the logic is happening.

3

I simple want to set a default email address if the user has no one entered.

4

Stephan Meier wrote:

I simple want to set a default email address if the user has no one entered.

How would this be of any use at all? If a user has no e-mail address, just leave the field blank rather than polluting it with bogus data. Or is there something I don't understand here?

Best,

5

ok!

http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/ConnectionAdapters/TableDefinition.html does anything on this page seem like a fit ?

6

Stephan Meier wrote:

I simple want to set a default email address if the user has no one entered.

ok, i solved it with a simple before_save callback... and do the check inside the model.

7

Marnen Laibow-Koser wrote: [...]

Don't save your no-reply e-mail address to the DB, then. Just leave the e-mail field blank in the DB, and use something like

@user.email || default_email

where you need it in your app. Right now, you are saving bogus data to your DB -- and what happens if your no-reply address changes?

It has just occurred to me that there's one scenario in which I *would* recommend saving the default address. If you want a record of each message exactly as it went out -- including the no-reply address used *at the time*, even if it's obsolete -- then you should save the default address to the DB.

In almost any other case, this behavior is Plain Wrong. (Yes, that's a technical computer science term. :slight_smile: )

Best,

8

It sounds like you want the default value to act sort of like a label, if so here's a little snippet I've used previously that works very nicely.

http://codesnippets.joyent.com/posts/show/478

Then format your input like this...

<%= form.text_field :email, :value => "fake@address.com" onclick => "clickclear(this, 'fake@address.com')" onblur => "clickrecall (this,'fake@address.com'')" %>

Just be sure that the 3 values here are all identical.

9

Dave S wrote:

It sounds like you want the default value to act sort of like a label, if so here's a little snippet I've used previously that works very nicely.

http://codesnippets.joyent.com/posts/show/478

Then format your input like this...

<%= form.text_field :email, :value => "fake@address.com" onclick => "clickclear(this, 'fake@address.com')" onblur => "clickrecall (this,'fake@address.com'')" %>

Just be sure that the 3 values here are all identical.

I haven't looked at the snippet yet, but your last sentence is troublesome. If it's important to have the same value in 3 places, then it should be set only once and referred to (in a variable, or with a higher level abstraction). It is *never* OK to have the same literal value in 3 places like this.

Best,