Help with nested model forms

rubyonrails-talk
1

class Message < ActiveRecord::Base   belongs_to :author   accepts_nested_attributes_for :author end

I'm using the above and it's working perfectly. The message gets saved with an author_id attribute which references the author (tha author record gets saved too).

The problem:

Sometimes I don't want to save the author because the author already exists (I just want to reference it). I just want the message to get saved with the author_id reference. How can I override or modify the normal saving behaviour when using the accepts_nested_attributes_for method?

Thanks,

Elías

2

Hello Elias

I wonder that this works in any way. Normally in an 1:n relation the 1 accepts the nested attributes for the n. So this would be the way to go for you:

class Author < ActiveRecord::Base   has_many :messages   accepts_nested_attributes_for :messages end

Then you can make a (possibly almost empty) form for Author with fields_for the message(s).

Regards, T.

3

class Message < ActiveRecord::Base

belongs_to :author

accepts_nested_attributes_for :author

end

I’m using the above and it’s working perfectly. The message gets saved

with an author_id attribute which references the author (tha author

record gets saved too).

The problem:

Sometimes I don’t want to save the author because the author already

exists (I just want to reference it). I just want the message to get

saved with the author_id reference. How can I override or modify the

normal saving behaviour when using the accepts_nested_attributes_for

method?

Thanks,

Elías

Elías, I would recommend taking a look at the following screencasts:

http://railscasts.com/episodes/196-nested-model-form-part-1

http://railscasts.com/episodes/197-nested-model-form-part-2

Good luck,

-Conrad