I'm a Rails newbie, so please bear with me. I'm using version 3.0.0.
I have a form to create and update articles which uses a fields_for to nest a 'collaborator' resource, of which an article :has_many. I would like for users to be able to search for other users to add as collaborators (co-authors of the article) using a live search field linked to a select box (or something similar).
Unfortunately, I need to pass the original article form object to the search results partial on every AJAX request in the live search. Is there any simple way to do this, or a better approach entirely?
Here's my code:
Following the nested model Railscast, my articles form includes this div:
<div class="article_form_collaborators"> <%= f.fields_for :collaborations do |builder| %> <%= render 'collaboration_fields', :f => builder %> <% end %> </div> <p><%= link_to_add_fields "Add another collaborator", f, :collaborations %></p>
The collaboration_fields partial includes an observe_field (obtrusive as it may be...) call to handle the live search functionality:
<div class="collaborator_fields"> Search for collaborator: <input type="text" id="live_user_search_form" name="search" /> <span id="live_search_results"> <%= render :partial => 'live_search' %> </span> <img id="spinner" src="/images/spinner.gif" style="display: none;" /
<%= link_to_remove_fields "Remove collaborator", f %> </div> <%= observe_field "live_user_search_form", :url => { :controller => 'articles', :action => 'live_search' }, :frequency => 0.5, :update => 'live_search_results', :with => "'search_text=' + escape(value)", :loading => "document.getElementById('spinner').style.display='inline'", :loaded => "document.getElementById('spinner').style.display='none'" %>
And the live_search partial just allows the user to select from the search results:
<% if @live_search_users && @live_search_users.hits.count > 0 %> <%= f.select :collaborator_id, @live_search_users.hits.map { |hit| ["#{hit.instance.first_name} #{hit.instance.last_name} (#{hit.instance.email})", hit.instance.id] }, { :include_blank => true } %> <% else %> <%= f.select :collaborator_id, current_user.friends.map { |hit| ["#{hit.first_name} #{hit.last_name} (#{hit.email})", hit.id] }, { :include_blank => true } %> <% end %>
The searching is handled through a live_search function in the articles controller:
def live_search if request.xhr? if params['search_text'].strip.length > 0 terms = params['search_text'].split.collect do |word| "%#{word.downcase}" end @live_search_users = Sunspot.search( User ) do keywords terms end render :partial => '/articles/live_search' else render :partial => '/articles/live_search' end end end
As you can see the live_search partial requires the article form, f, for the select function, but obviously that's not available unless passed somehow. I've tried passing it around using :locals in every place I can think of, such as from the observe_field call through the controller and back to the partial, but nothing seems to work.
Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated!