HABTM and radio_button

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hello.

Stuck on some HABTM stuff here... I'm new to rails and I'm kinda lost on this topic. FYI This is all within the context of a working restful_authentication and role_requirement setup. I am simply adding a radio button pair to my new user form. When submitted, I need the appropriate tables updated. As is, only the user table will update. The join table will not. I have tried a handful of different things both for the fields_for params and inside the controller's create action with no luck yet. Here's what I have below.

Thanks for the input!

THE CLASSES: class User < ActiveRecord::Base     has_and_belongs_to_many :roles end

class Role < ActiveRecord::Base   has_and_belongs_to_many :users end

THE CONTROLLER: Edited for brevity... class UsersController < ApplicationController   def new     @user = User.new   end

  def create     logout_keeping_session!     username = params[:user][:first_name]     username += params[:user][:last_name]     params[:user][:login] = username

    # Create a random password.     random_p = User.generate_pass 8     params[:user][:password] = random_p

    @user = User.new(params[:user])

    success = @user && @user.save     if success && @user.errors.empty?       redirect_back_or_default('/')       flash[:notice] = "Thanks for signing up!"     else       flash[:error] = "Too bad sucka!"       render :action => 'new'     end   end end

THE FORM: new.html.erb <% form_for @user do |f| -%>

<p><%= label_tag 'first_name' %><br/> <%= f.text_field :first_name %></p>

<p><%= label_tag 'last_name' %><br/> <%= f.text_field :last_name %></p>

<p><%= label_tag 'email' %><br/> <%= f.text_field :email %></p>

<% fields_for :role, @roles do |ff| %>   <p>Select account type:<br>   <%= label_tag :name_user, "User" %>   <%= ff.radio_button :name, "user" %>

  <%= label_tag :name_admin, "Admin" %>   <%= ff.radio_button :name, "admin" %>   </p> <% end %>

<p><%= submit_tag 'Sign up' %></p> <% end -%>

Here's a sample of how the params are going out: Processing UsersController#create (for 127.0.0.1 at 2009-03-16 17:59:38) [POST]   Parameters: {"user"=>{"first_name"=>"Willy", "last_name"=>"Wonka", "email"=>"bill@chocaloatecityusa.com"}, "commit"=>"Sign up", "authenticity_token"=>"05d982e6eabe5eba6dac466723f9402b9522b3b1", "role"=>{"name"=>"admin"}}

2

If i understood correctly, you want the role to be added to the user upon creation, but its not.

here is the code that would do it

def create     logout_keeping_session!     params[:user][:login] = params[:user][:first_name] + params[:user] [:last_name]

    # Create a random password.     params[:user][:password] = User.generate_pass 8

    @user = User.new(params[:user], :roles => [ Role.new(params [:role]) ] # in an array

    # success = @user && @user.save # user will always have something, therefore this line is redundant

    if @user.save       redirect_back_or_default('/')       flash[:notice] = "Thanks for signing up!"     else       flash[:error] = "Too bad sucka!"       render :action => 'new'     end   end

hope it helps

3

Wolas!,

Thanks for the reply. I will be able to try this out in the morning. I'll get back to you with the results.

Elliott

4

When I implement this line: @user = User.new(params[:user], :role => [ Role.new(params[:role]) ])

I get this argument error.   ArgumentError in UsersController#create   wrong number of arguments (2 for 1)

Any thoughts?

Thanks

5

The #new method only accepts one argument. Do this instead:

@user = User.new(params[:user].merge(:role => Role.new(params [:role])))

6

Thanks for the input. That does prevent the error but it does not actually update the roles_users join table that is a part of the habtm association between User and Role.

I just tried this code within Create and it seems to work:... @user = User.new(params[:user]) @user.roles.build(params[:role])

However, I have a question still. I was assuming that the Roles table would not actually have a new record added when saving an habtm assoc. model. I assumed only the join table and the Users table would be updated. Otherwise it seems as though I would have a lot of redundant data in my Roles table. Am I misunderstanding something here?

Thanks heaps

7

Just another question that may help me better understand habtm workings...

Would it be true that in order to create a fully functional habtm record that both models using the habtm assoc. need to be updated and saved? Or is it possible to do having a fully working relationship by saving only one of the two?

Thanks

8

I'm not sure how you'ld expect the roles table *not* to be updated. I mean, you are telling Rails to build a role:

@user.roles.build(params[:role])

If only the users table and the roles_users table were updated the role would not exist. Remember, the join table only contains two columns: role_id and user_id. In order to register an HABTM in the join table there must be *one* role and *one* user. If it still doesn't make sense to you, I recommend that read the documentation for HABTM associations: http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Associations/ClassMethods.html#M001792

9

Thanks for the input David.

I'll explain myself a bit more here, maybe you could help me further?

I am building an interface so an admin can create new users and assign them to have either a "user" or "admin" role using restful_authentication and role_requiremnt.

I have a roles table that I have manually placed two records under the Name column for both "user" and "admin". These are the only two user roles expected. It seems that if each time I add a new user and I add a new record under the Name column of the roles table as well that I am going to have a lot of redundant data in roles. IE there could be twenty entries under Name roles that say "user" and then X amount more that say "admin". It would seem that I only need one record for each in roles to adhere to some semblance of DB normalcy ideals.?.?.

Should only the user table and the join table be updated to somehow map to the correct existing roles Name record? IE "user" or "admin". And if so, whats the code to do that?

Thanks a ton for the help here!

10

If you would like to associate multiple users with the same two roles in your database, you would have to do it like this:

@user.roles << Role.find_by_name(params[:role_name])

Keep in mind, that this is going to allow the user to have multiple roles. The #<< method is going to add another role to the collection of roles, the user already has. The params[:role_name] is simply the name of the role, you'ld like the user to have, for example "admin".