How to get submit button value in form builder?

Question

I'm creating a form using the simple_form gem on Rails 3.2.

The problem I'm having is that I wish to add a font-awesome icon to the f.button :submit line of my form. Since the output is of type input I can't embed the icon element inside of it.

I could simply hardcode a submit button into the form that contains the icon but I am not sure how to fetch the button value - Create %model / Update %model .

My code is posted below:

<div id="form">
  <%= simple_form_for @program, :html => { :class => 'form-horizontal' } do |f| %>
    <%= f.input :name %>
    <%= f.input :url %>
    <%= f.input :description, :input_html => { :class => "span5", :rows => 10 } %>

    *********************

    <%= f.button :submit do %>
      <i class="icon-save"></i> What Here??? <--- Doesn't work since output is type input
    <% end %>

    *********************

    <button class="btn">
      <i class="icon-save"></i> <%= f.button(:submit).label %> <--- Doesn't work, alternative?
    </button>
  <% end %> 
</div>

Expected output:

<button type="submit" class="btn">
    <i class="icon-plus-sign"></i> Create *ModelName*        
</button>

Or Update ModelName , depending on controller action.

Answer 1

<%= f.button do %>
    <i class="icon-save"></i> <%= "#{f.object.new_record? ? 'Create' : 'Update'} #{f.object.class.model_name.human}" %>
<% end %>

It would be better to make some helper method for this. If you want to use I18n take a look at source code ( button and submit_default_value methods, lines 1763 and 1776 ). It's pretty clear.