form_for with multiple objects, each with a preset attribute?

rubyonrails-talk
1

I'm using Rails to create a schedule of a shop's opening and closing hours. Simplified versions of the models I've set up is:

class Account < ActiveRecord::Base

  has_many :opening_hours, :dependent => :destroy

end

class OpeningHour < ActiveRecord::Base

  belongs_to :account

  # table schema   # create_table "opening_hours", :force => true do |t|   # t.integer "account_id"   # t.string "day_of_week"   # t.string "begins"   # t.string "ends"   # end

end

So an account might have one opening_hour for Monday (:day_of_week => "Monday", :opens =>"9am", :closes => "5pm"), two for Tuesday ([:day_of_week => "Tuesday", :opens => "9am", :closes => "12pm"], [:day_of_week => "Tuesday", :opens => "1pm", :closes => "5pm"]), etc.

As I begin work on the HTML form for this schedule, I realize I'm not sure of the best way to allow the user to add multiple objects within one form when each object already has an attribute defined (the day_of_week attr).

The form I'm working on should look like this:

Monday Opening Hours

[begins text_input] - [ends text_input]

Tuesday Opening Hours

[begins text_input] - [ends text_input]

[begins text_input] - [ends text_input] ...

Does anyone know of a standard way to handle this sort of requirement? I'm familiar with this method[1] to add multiple child objects in a single form, but in Ryan's example, the tasks lack any pre-determined attribute values.

[1]: #73 Complex Forms Part 1 - RailsCasts

Thanks very much for your help,

Jacob Patton

2

I've got this figured out now. I used a nested object form[1] to handle creating/updating multiple OpeningHour records:

[1]: http://ryandaigle.com/articles/2009/2/1/what-s-new-in-edge-rails-nested-attributes

class Account < ActiveRecord::Base

  has_many :opening_hours, :dependent => :destroy

  # Add attributes for each day of the week   days_of_week = %w(Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday)   days_of_week.each do |day_of_week|     attribute = "#{day_of_week.downcase}_opening_hours".to_sym     has_many attribute, :class_name => "OpeningHour", :conditions => {:day_of_week => day_of_week}     accepts_nested_attributes_for attribute, :allow_destroy => true     attr_accessible (attribute.to_s + "_attributes").to_sym   end

end

In the template, loop through the available fields by using fields_for:

<%- form_for account do |f| %>

  <% f.fields_for :monday_opening_hours do |opening_hour| %>

     <%= opening_hour.text_field :begins %>      to      <%= opening_hour.text_field :ends %>

  <% end %>

  ...

<%- end %>

-Jacob Patton

3

This was really useful. Thanks for leaving info on how you did it.