Rails Forms for custom actions

Question

I'm trying to link the input of a form to a specific action in my rails app.

Currently if I go to www.myapp.com/check/:idNumber , I'll be able to trigger the action just fine (which means routes is setup properly?). This action is basically a function call to a ruby/rails script with the parameter "idNumber" being passed to it. If the function is successful, it would return a newly created "Person" object and nil otherwise. This is different than the standard new operation as it determines the the attributes based on some information that it obtained from a database somewhere else.

Rake routes does give me the following:

   check        /check/:idNumber(.:format)    person#check {:id=>/\d+/}

What I'm having trouble implementing is the form itself.

<%= form_tag("/check", :method => "get") do %>
  <%= text_field_tag(:idNumber) %>
<% end %>

Controller action:

  def check
    regCheck = RegCheck.new  

    @person = regCheck.check_id(params[:idNumber])

    if @person.name == nil
      redirect_to root_path
    end
end

submitting the form above would bring me to myapp.com/check?utf8=✓&idNumber=1234 instead. Can someone tell me what am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

I believe that using the check_path helper that is generated from the routes file is your best bet.

The form should look like this then.

<%= form_tag(check_path) do %>
  <%= text_field_tag(:idNumber) %>
<% end %>

Answer 2

Rails forms can be finicky, especially when trying to build really customized forms.

This line
= form_for [@object]

Determines where the form goes, as well as the object that is being implemented. If you want to route the form to a different place, you can user the :url option. This options determines the path of the form, however you must keep in mind that the method is determined by the @object . If it is a new object, the method will be POST, an existing object will use a PUT method.

Let's suppose you want to update an existing object, but you want to send in data for a new object belonging to the existing object. That would look like

= form_for [@object], :as => @child_object, :url => my_optional_custom_path do |f|
    # etc...

This generates a form sending a PUT request to the custom url (or the update path for @object if no custom url is supplied. The PUT request is sent with the parameter params[:child_object] .

Hopefully this helps!

Best,

-Brian

Answer 3

I don't think it's possible the way you're trying.. The URL for the form is created before the user inputs any data.. So you need to remove the :idNumber from your routing..

If you do you get the following route:

check        /check(.:format)    person#check

Because the regex is removed now, you need to do this in you're controller:

def check

  # Make sure ID is digits only
  idNumber = params[:idNumber].gsub(/[^\d]/, '')

  regCheck = RegCheck.new

  @person = regCheck.check_id(idNumber)

  if @person.name == nil
    redirect_to root_path
  end
end

You're form is allright, but you may want to use check_path like TheBinaryhood suggests..

If you really want it to be check/:idNumber you may also be able to submit the form to another action and redirect it to the right path from there..