form_tag and html id

I'm using Rails 1.2.3 and have been wrestling with the form_tag helper trying to get the HTML id for the form set.

My form_tag initially looked like this:

<% form_tag :controller => 'my_controller', :action => 'my_action' do %>

and I thought it should be as easy as adding :html => {:id => 'my_id'}:

<% form_tag :controller => 'my_controller', :action => 'my_action', :html => {:id => 'my_id'} do %>

After all, that's how the form_remote_tag works:

<% form_remote_tag :controller => 'my_controller', :action => 'my_action', :html => {:id => 'my_id'} do %>

Much to my chagrin, it didn't work. I did a lot of searching and experimenting, and finally figured out that you have to make two changes to get it to work. First, you have to use a string literal for the url. Second, you can't specify the :html hash key:

<% form_tag '/my_controller/my_action', {:id => 'my_id'} do %>

Two questions:

1) Does anyone know why the form_tag helper is inconsistent with both the form_remote_tag helper and the more Rails-traditional way of specifying urls (:controller, :action)? 2) Does anyone know if this behavior has been changed in 2.0?

Peace, Phillip

<% form_tag {:controller => 'my_controller', :action => 'my_action'}, :id => 'my_id' do %>

-Bill

Phillip Koebbe wrote:

Sorry, forgot to answer #2. There has been talk on the rails-core list about making this, along with link_to and others follow the single hash convention, but it has not been changed yet.

-Bill

Phillip Koebbe wrote:

Hi Bill,

That results in a compile error. The only way that I can get it to work is to use a string literal (or variable, I suppose...haven't tried that) for the url.

Peace, Phillip

Try it like:

<% form_tag({:controller => 'my_controller',               :action => 'my_action'},              :id => 'my_id') do %>

The first { is probably being seen as starting a block.

-Rob

Rob Biedenharn http://agileconsultingllc.com Rob@AgileConsultingLLC.com

Rob,

Putting the parentheses around the parameters made it output correctly. If only it would have been as easy as form_remote_tag to begin with...

Bill,

Thanks for your comments as well. Maybe someone will be a bug in their pants and decide to fix it.

Peace, Phillip