[Rails 3] Path helper not working as expected with form_for

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hi there,

I can’t seem to get form_for to work correctly with the URL I’m providing for a set of nested resources. Here’s what I’m doing in routes.rb:

resources :threads do

resources :messages

end

And then I’ve got the following form that I’m building as part of /threads/1/messages/1/edit. Both @thread and @message are set by the controller

…

<%= form_for @thread, :as => :thread, :url => thread_messages_path(@thread, @message) do |f| %>

<%= fields_for :message do |m| %>

	.....

<% end %>

<%= submit_tag "Update Message" %>

<% end %>

This is producing the following HTML:

Notice that while the HTTP method is correctly PUT, the form action ends in .1 instead of /1, which is confusing the router.

Curiously, the ‘new’ case seems to be getting properly constructed, though I had to manually specify the :method to properly generate the URL:

<%= form_for @thread, :as => :thread, :url => thread_messages_path, :html => {:method => :post} do |f| %>

<%= fields_for :message do |m| %>

	...

<% end %>

<%= submit_tag "Create Reply" %>

<% end %>

Am I doing something obviously wrong or is this a deficiency in the path convenience methods? Note that I am using “:as =>” all over the place because the name of my model object (which is actually “Axthread”) does not cleanly map to a named route, and using “thread” as a model name is not an option.

-Mike

2

So it would seem that there is huge level of subtly in how these path helpers behave based on how your pluralize the helper. So, what I should have written (and what now appears to work) was:

<%= form_for @thread, :as => :thread, :url => thread_message_path(@thread, @message) do |f| %>

So that’s thread_message_path, not thread_messages_path.

However, despite trying other options, it seems I still have to specify the HTTP verb as part of the ‘new’ case:

<%= form_for @thread, :as => :thread, :url => thread_messages_path(@thread), :html => {:method => :post} do |f| %>

Failing to specify :post results in the form thinking it should be PUTing instead of POSTing:

<form action="/threads/1/messages" class="thread_edit" id="thread_edit" method="post"><div style="margin:0;padding:0;display:inline"><input name="_method" type="hidden" value="put" />

-Mike