Ajax in Rails

Hi All,

New to the group, and new to learning rails.

I’m having some trouble, i’ve done a few tutorials on creating some
small apps with rails and am now starting to play around myself.

I’ve been trying to create a simple form which when a user enters any
data that data is displayed as a preview elsewhere on the page
instantly, just like when creating an advert with Google Adwords, the
preview is shown.

I’ve been using form_remote_for and observe_form but I don’t seem to
be having much luck at all. I am unsure how to use the controller to
get the form fields and pass them back to a partial to be rendered?

Here is my form:

<% form_remote_for @advert do |a| %>
Title: <%= a.text_field :title %>


First Line: <%= a.text_field :first_line %>


Second Line: <%= a.text_field :second_line %>


Visible URL: <%= a.text_field :visible_url %>


Destination URL: <%= a.text_field :destination_url %>
<%= submit_tag ‘Submit’ %>
<% end %>

Any help would be great?

Cheers,

Phil

On Mar 1, 1:04 pm, phil7085 [email protected] wrote:

I’ve been trying to create a simple form which when a user enters any
data that data is displayed as a preview elsewhere on the page
instantly, just like when creating an advert with Google Adwords, the
preview is shown.

I’ve been using form_remote_for and observe_form but I don’t seem to
be having much luck at all. I am unsure how to use the controller to
get the form fields and pass them back to a partial to be rendered?

In this respect it’s much like a normal form, eg the title will be
params[:advert][:title] (assuming @advert is of class Advert). As
usual you can just looking at development.log to see what the
parameters look like.

Fred

So then do I need to use the controller to populate another @advert
object with all the params then render the partial?

Cheers,

Phil

On Mar 1, 5:00 pm, Frederick C. [email protected]

On Mar 1, 5:10 pm, phil7085 [email protected] wrote:

So then do I need to use the controller to populate another @advert
object with all the params then render the partial?

Well I don’t know exactly what this controller is trying to do at all.
Assuming what it’s doing is create a new object then the controller
code is almost exactly the same as a regular create action, the only
difference is that instead of redirecting to the show action you’re
rendering a partial for the object you’ve just created.

Fred

I am simply trying to show what the user enters somewhere else on the
page as they type it.

I did get it to work using render :text => param[:advert][:title] +

’ + param[:advert][:first_line] …

But I think there should be a more efficient way to do it?

Could I do something like this:

def preview
@advert = Advert.new(params[:advert])
render :partial => ‘advert’
end

Phil

On Mar 1, 7:31 pm, Frederick C. [email protected]

Thanks Fred,

How would I then need to tell rails to use the @advert object because
that’s the part that I have been having trouble with?

Phil

On Mar 1, 7:41 pm, Frederick C. [email protected]

On Mar 1, 7:38 pm, phil7085 [email protected] wrote:

def preview
@advert = Advert.new(params[:advert])
render :partial => ‘advert’
end

Something like that is fine (although you’ll need to tell rails to use
the @advert object). It’s not more efficient in terms of raw cpu
cycles but I’m assuming that’s not what you meant (it is a lot easier
on the eye and a better separation of presentation from your actual
code).

Fred

On Mar 1, 8:12 pm, phil7085 [email protected] wrote:

Thanks Fred,

How would I then need to tell rails to use the @advert object because
that’s the part that I have been having trouble with?

render :partial => ‘blah’, :object => foo

Fred

Frederick C. wrote:

render :partial => ‘blah’, :object => foo

To save me from Googling for “object”, what does that look like inside
the partial?

phil7085 wrote:

How would I then need to tell rails to use the @advert object because
that’s the part that I have been having trouble with?

Formerly, it was this:

def preview
@advert = Advert.new(params[:advert])
render :partial => ‘advert’, :locals =>{ :@advert => @advert }
end

I prefer that style because it makes @advert, inside the partial, safe
to test
for nil. However, on our latest new project (Rails 2.2.2) either we did
something else wrong, or the :@ stopped working, and we had to use this:

render :partial => 'advert', :locals =>{ :advert => @advert }

Does anyone know if the :@ trick should still work?


Phlip

On Mar 1, 8:42 pm, Phlip [email protected] wrote:

Frederick C. wrote:

render :partial => ‘blah’, :object => foo

To save me from Googling for “object”, what does that look like inside the partial?

the object specified in that way is assigned to a local variable
called object and to a local variable called after the partial (ie the
same thing that happens when you do :collection => foos) (or using the
name specified in the :as option)

Fred

Thanks,

I will give this a try, although as a newbie this talk
of :locals, :object, etc has slightly gone over my head. I’m sure i’ll
get it.

Phil

Hi guys,

I’ve tried both of those options and can’t get it to work, I think
it’s the way I am trying to retrieve the values in the partial.

In the development.log I have this error: undefined method `title’ for
#HashWithIndifferentAccess:0x1f7f930

In my controller I have this:

render :partial => ‘advert’, :object => @advert

And in my partial I have tried both if these:

<%= advert.title %>
<%= @advert.title %>

No luck.

Any suggestions?

Phil

On Mar 2, 8:39 am, phil7085 [email protected] wrote:

Ok I’ve got it to work by using this in my partial:

<%= @advert[:title] %>

Can you tell me why I have to reference like this?

The errors you mentionned imply that @advert isn’t actually an
instance of the Advert class.

Fred

Ok I’ve got it to work by using this in my partial:

<%= @advert[:title] %>

Can you tell me why I have to reference like this?

Phil

Ok Fred, I think I understand, I’ve now changed the controller to look
like this:

def preview
@advert = Advert.new(params[:advert])
render :partial => ‘advert’, :object => @advert
end

Before I had: @advert = params[:advert] which I think is what you
mean by it not being an instance of the class.

Now in my partial I can use @advert.title and all works fine.

Thanks for all your help.

Phil

On Mar 2, 9:13 am, Frederick C. [email protected]