rest - nested resources

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hope this is going to come out understandable. Right now I have a nested resource within my main rest route - as in:

map.resources :candidates do |candidate| candidate.resources :canbackgrounds end

The reason I have this setup is because I’m working on a multi part form where I"m giving the user the option to do “sections” at their leisure, etc.

So the first section (the main - is candidates)

the second section is canbackgrounds.

However within the actual canbackground form is a field that is inputted into another model / table. My question then is should I be adding this other model into the nested resources, as perhaps a nested resource within canbackgrounds ?

Hope this isn’t all too confusing , I know it is for me :slight_smile: Stuart

2

So the first section (the main - is candidates) the second section is canbackgrounds.

However within the actual canbackground form is a field that is inputted into another model / table. My question then is should I be adding this other model into the nested resources, as perhaps a nested resource within canbackgrounds ?

Resources provide a way to create groups of related routes. So the question is do you need to manipulate this field? I don’t think it makes sense to define resource for just one field. You will be able to deal with your canbackground attributes in a RESTful way. It is not clear from your question why you want to nest another resource for only one field.

3

So the first section (the main - is candidates) the second section is canbackgrounds.

However within the actual canbackground form is a field that is inputted into another model / table. My question then is should I be adding this other model into the nested resources, as perhaps a nested resource within canbackgrounds ?

Resources provide a way to create groups of related routes. So the question is do you need to manipulate this field? I don’t think it makes sense to define resource for just one field. You will be able to deal with your canbackground attributes in a RESTful way. It is not clear from your question why you want to nest another resource for only one field.

Bala , thank you for responding. What I’ve done or will be doing is defining 5 resources. 4 of which is nested in the first. However in a few of those 4 nested resources, the forms contain input elements for models not currently in those resources.

Why do these models exist ? Because i have a number of form elements that are multiple selection lists. So to reference canbackgrounds - in the new form i have a select list , multiple, this is written to the canindustries model.

My tables looks like this: (nested resource of candidates → canbackgrounds | id | candidate_id | somefield 1 10 3

(not sure what to do with this → canindustries | canbackground_id | candidate_id | industry_id 1 10 4

                                                                     1                         10                    7
                                                                     1                         10                    9

Hope this explains it better. Let me know what you think…anyone :slight_smile: Stuart

4

So to reference canbackgrounds - in the new form i have a select list , multiple, this is written to the canindustries model. My tables looks like this: (nested resource of candidates → canbackgrounds | id | candidate_id | somefield

                                                                         1        10                  3

(not sure what to do with this → canindustries | canbackground_id | candidate_id | industry_id

                                                                     1                         10                    4
                                                                     1                         10                    7

                                                                     1                         10                    9

Hope this explains it better. Let me know what you think…anyone :slight_smile: Stuart

So you basically have values for multiple selection list that is part of the canbackgrounds model. You want to know how to persist these values. Is that your question?

5

Sorry Bala, I’m truly not trying to be confusing. No, those multiple selection values are going into ANOTHER model.

some code to demonstrate -

config/routes.rb

map.resources :candidates do |candidate| candidate.resources :canbackgrounds

end

Now from teh canbackgrounds ‘new’ form <% form_for :canbackground, :url => canbackground_url, :candidate_id => @candidate_id do |form| %> …

<%= text_field(:canbackground, :recent_title) %> <------------- going to model Canbackground ............................

Now it’s all working fine as it’s currently set up, however maybe I’m not seeing a better way of doing it. As you said in the first message, for one field it probably doesn’t make sense to create a seperate resource, that’s kind of how I feel. Anyway, hopefully this explains it better.

Stuart

6

Now from teh canbackgrounds ‘new’ form <% form_for :canbackground, :url => canbackground_url, :candidate_id => @candidate_id do |form| %> …

<%= text_field(:canbackground, :recent_title) %> <------------- going to model Canbackground ............................

Now it’s all working fine as it’s currently set up, however maybe I’m not seeing a better way of doing it. As you said in the first message, for one field it probably doesn’t make sense to create a seperate resource, that’s kind of how I feel. Anyway, hopefully this explains it better.

You can have multiple models in a form. The fields_for helper can be used for this purpose. In this case you can have:

<% form_for :canbackground, :url => canbackground_url, :candidate_id => @candidate_id do |form| %>

<%= form.text_field (:canbackground, :recent_title) %>

<% fields_for :canindustries do |canindustry| %>

I don’t know if there is any other better way of doing this.

7

Bala, thank you for the help and responses. You helped clear up my concerns.

Stuart

8

Well , now I’m experiencing a problem with this. As for above new/create works fine.

Edit though is a problem as the canindustry field in the edit form is not returning the previously selected records. Not sure how to fix this issue.

The edit form looks like this: <% form_for :canbackground,

        :url => canbackground_url,
        :candidate_id => @candidate_id,
        :html => {:method => :put} do |form| %>

…fields… #in the middle is the canindustry field:

The controller has this line for returning teh previously selected fields for canbackground @canbackground = @candidate.canbackgrounds.find(params[:id])

However I have no clue how to pull up the previously stored values for canindustry.

Stuart