help with FormOptionsHelper

Hi -

I'm trying to understand the help for this:

it says:

select(object, method, choices, options = {}, html_options = {})

questions-

1) what is 'object' ? Is this an ActiveRecord object? 2) what is method? 3) do i assume that my form object created from form_for calls select directly? 4) what is the form of object- is it "user", @user, user, or :user ? Please explain why, this is terribly confusing for a newbie.

So, if I have a view:

<% content_for(:page) do %> <h1>New user</h1> <% form_for :user, @user, :url => { :action => "create" } do |form| %> #NOTE I'M TRYING TO USE FORM_FOR <%= render :partial => 'form', :locals => { :form => form, :genders => @genders, :user=>@user} %> #SEND THE FORM INSTANCE DOWN TO PARTIAL <%= submit_tag "Create" %> <%end%> <%end%>

Notice I'm attempting to send the current user to the partial, I'm not sure if I'm doing this right. Also, my controller created a User instance (@user) which I'm sending to the partial.

and the partial:

<p> <label> Last Name<br/> <%= form.text_field :lastname %> </label> </p> ...

<p> <label> Gender<br/> <%= form.select('user', "gender", {"Male" => 1, "Female" =>2 })%> #THIS DOESN'T WORK </label> </p>

Note, there is no gender table, just 2 choices. User has a gender field which is an integer.

So all I'm trying to do is let the client choose a gender from a select box. Please tell me what I'm doing wrong and if possible, answer my questions above.

Thanks, Dino

Hi -

I'm trying to understand the help for this:

ActionView::Helpers::FormOptionsHelper

it says:

select(object, method, choices, options = {}, html_options = {})

questions-

1) what is 'object' ? Is this an ActiveRecord object? 2) what is method? 3) do i assume that my form object created from form_for calls select directly? 4) what is the form of object- is it "user", @user, user, or :user ? Please explain why, this is terribly confusing for a newbie.

1) it's 'user' or :user. rails will look for an instance variable with
that name 2) it's the name method returning the value to display. This could be
a db column or a computed property.

form_for makes things a bit easier: when using form_for you don't need
to specify object (since that is setup in the call to form_for) ie you can do form.select(:gender, ...) (in the same way that you can
do form.text_field :lastname)

Fred

form_for makes things a bit easier: when using form_for you don't need to specify object (since that is setup in the call to form_for) <=============== ie you can do form.select(:gender, ...) (in the same way that you can do form.text_field :lastname)

Fred

OOOH!!!! Now i get it. Thanks for the great response. The docs are just not newbie friendly.

Dino