# Ajax.updater to call app\_helper or model method **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [March 1, 2009, 12:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ajax-updater-to-call-app-helper-or-model-method/161689 "2009-03-01T00:03:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![neubyr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@neubyr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/neubyr)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2009, 12:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ajax-updater-to-call-app-helper-or-model-method/161689/1 "2009-03-01T00:03:06Z")
I am quite newbie to rails and stuck with a problem. In my application I have a Ajax.updater call to update counties list in a select drop down whenever a city name is selected. I need to do this in many place in my application. Currently the Ajax is working fine. But the get\_counties action is in the controller. So I am using this action in all controllers that I need. However, it would be nice if I could move this to a County or City model or application\_helper.rb . Calling this method from application\_helper is not working as rails/ajax still looks for this action in the controller. How can I deal with this? And in general what will be the best place to add this method. Below is my code: ## Controller action: def get\_counties @county = {} @counties = {} @fake\_county\_name = ‘(city)’ if not params[:id].blank? index = params[:id] @counties = County.find(:all, :conditions=\> [“city\_id = ? AND name != ?”, index, @fake\_county\_name ], :order=\>“name”) end render :partial =\> ‘county’, :locals=\>{ “counties”=\>@counties, “county”=\>@counties } end * * * * * * * * * ## View partial: \<%= options\_from\_collection\_for\_select(@counties, "id", "name", @county[:id]) %\> | Select city:\* | \<%= options\_from\_collection\_for\_select(@cities,"id","name",@city[:id]) %\> | | Select county:\* | * * * * * * ## \_section.rhtml \<%= options\_from\_collection\_for\_select(@secs, “id”, “name”, @sec[:id]) %\> Cheers, CS. ---
**Author:** ![neubyr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@neubyr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/neubyr)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2009, 12:57am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ajax-updater-to-call-app-helper-or-model-method/161689/2 "2009-03-01T00:57:05Z")
On Feb 28, 11:03 pm, Carlos S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > in general what will be the best place to add this method. The more conventional way to do this would to have a single get\_counties action in the Cities controller (or expose counties as a nested resource of cities, but you might want to leave that for another day). Your if you change your ajax updater to make a request to /some\_controller/some\_action then all of the pages using this partial will make their ajax requests to the same place Fred ---
**Author:** ![neubyr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@neubyr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/neubyr)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2009, 1:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ajax-updater-to-call-app-helper-or-model-method/161689/3 "2009-03-01T01:48:04Z")
Thanks Fred… I don’t have counties or cities controller right now. The get\_counties/sections method is placed in the other controllers (users and exhibitions). I wanted to do this application RESTful way, however I haven’t been successful in doing so. Your suggestion of making counties as a nested resource of cities was my initial thought. (And also user belongs to a county. ) However, when I tried to do RESTful the ‘usual CRUD actions’ (list, add, show, update, delete) for the user\_controller worked but get\_counties action did not work. The error being in Ajax.updater method as it uses POST and REST allowed only get, put, and delete. Can someone help me in understanding this? 1. Any suggestion for placing get\_sections method? 2. And how to use actions in RESTful way? Many tutorials point to list, add, show, update, delete example… But how can we do it for other actions. (In my case essentially it will be a list of counties pertaining to particular city… But I don’t know how to do this… Any help appreciated… Thanks, CS. Frederick C. wrote: > On Feb 28, 11:03�pm, Carlos S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > wrote: > > > in general what will be the best place to add this method. > > The more conventional way to do this would to have a single > get\_counties action in the Cities controller (or expose counties as a > nested resource of cities, but you might want to leave that for > another day). Your if you change your ajax updater to make a request > to /some\_controller/some\_action then all of the pages using this > partial will make their ajax requests to the same place > > Fred ---
**Author:** ![neubyr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@neubyr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/neubyr)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2009, 3:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ajax-updater-to-call-app-helper-or-model-method/161689/4 "2009-03-01T03:01:19Z")
On Mar 1, 12:48 am, Carlos S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > (list, add, show, update, delete) for the user\_controller worked but > get\_counties action did not work. The error being in Ajax.updater method > as it uses POST and REST allowed only get, put, and delete. You can use any method with an Ajax.Updater ( check the prototype api docs). > Can someone help me in understanding this? > > 1. Any suggestion for placing get\_sections method? > 2. And how to use actions in RESTful way? Many tutorials point to list, > add, show, update, delete example… But how can we do it for other > actions. (In my case essentially it will be a list of counties > pertaining to particular city… But I don’t know how to do this… Any > help appreciated… You can have arbitrary actions on both members of a collection or the collection itself. I don’t think you need this here though. I would recommend you read through the guide on routing ( [http://guides.rubyonrails.org/routing\_outside\_in.html](http://guides.rubyonrails.org/routing_outside_in.html) ) Fred ---
**Author:** ![neubyr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@neubyr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/neubyr)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2009, 3:40am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ajax-updater-to-call-app-helper-or-model-method/161689/5 "2009-03-01T03:40:31Z")
Frederick C. wrote: > On Mar 1, 12:48�am, Carlos S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > wrote: > > > (list, add, show, update, delete) for the user\_controller worked but > > get\_counties action did not work. The error being in Ajax.updater method > > as it uses POST and REST allowed only get, put, and delete. > > You can use any method with an Ajax.Updater ( check the prototype api > docs). If I use get method then it does not update the select dropdown (which is what it is intended to do). > > Can someone help me in understanding this? > > > > 1. Any suggestion for placing get\_sections method? > > 2. And how to use actions in RESTful way? Many tutorials point to list, > > add, show, update, delete example… But how can we do it for other > > actions. (In my case essentially it will be a list of counties > > pertaining to particular city… �But I don’t know how to do this… Any > > help appreciated… > > You can have arbitrary actions on both members of a collection or the > collection itself. I don’t think you need this here though. I would > recommend you read through the guide on routing ( > [http://guides.rubyonrails.org/routing\_outside\_in.html](http://guides.rubyonrails.org/routing_outside_in.html) ) > > Fred ---
**Author:** ![neubyr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@neubyr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/neubyr)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2009, 3:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ajax-updater-to-call-app-helper-or-model-method/161689/6 "2009-03-01T03:50:28Z")
On Mar 1, 2:40 am, Carlos S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > If I use get method then it does not update the select dropdown (which > is what it is intended to do). Then you must be doing something funny somewhere as (apart from routing) whether it’s a get or a post is pretty much irrelevant (and semantically get is the correct method to be using here). Fred ---
**Author:** ![neubyr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@neubyr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/neubyr)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2009, 10:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ajax-updater-to-call-app-helper-or-model-method/161689/7 "2009-03-01T10:13:39Z")
It works fine until I start making my application RESTful way… Any clues? How can I debug this issue? Frederick C. wrote: > On Mar 1, 2:40�am, Carlos S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > wrote: > > > If I use get method then it does not update the select dropdown (which > > is what it is intended to do). > > Then you must be doing something funny somewhere as (apart from > routing) whether it’s a get or a post is pretty much irrelevant (and > semantically get is the correct method to be using here). > > Fred