link_to with hidden parameters

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hi All,

Sorry if this has been asked before, I'm just looking for a pointer on the 'standard' or accepted way to get around this issue, as oppose to some 'bodges' that would seem workable.

Dead simple:

I have an index page for model 'properties' which needs a per-property link to create a new 'lease'. A link_to is fine for jumping to the 'new' page of the 'lease' model, however I want to pass the property_id for the lease to the controller, without it appearing in the url (Presuming I will thus have to POST it)

I know that I could do a javascript function or create a hidden form but was wondering if there is a more elegant way to solve this, as it must crop up all of the time.

Thanks in advance for any helpers with this

Paul

2

I know that I could do a javascript function or create a hidden form

but was wondering if there is a more elegant way to solve this, as it

must crop up all of the time.

taking those 2 out , and the uri, how will the server know what you want?

you can map is to the uri so you dont use ?property= not you have to tell the server what you want.

3

Well, really, the elegant way is to have the ID in the URL, and GET it. It's not great practice to use POSTs when a GET would do, simply for comestic reasons.

Is there a particular business reason you can't have the ID of the property in the URL? If it's simply that the URL doesn't look pretty with a querystring attached, you could make 'leases' a nested resources, so the URLs could look like this:

/properties/1/leases/new

If it's genuinely unacceptable to have the property ID in the URL, then you will have to send it as form data in a POST, yes. If you want to avoid JavaScript, but still have the element look like a link rather than a form submit button, it's possible to style buttons as links:

http://natbat.net/2009/Jun/10/styling-buttons-as-links/

but this is starting to look like a hacky solution to a non-problem. Can you elaborate more on what you're trying to achieve?

Chris