# Checkbox\_tag outside a form? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [June 20, 2006, 7:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/checkbox-tag-outside-a-form/95943 "2006-06-20T19:34:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wpwood)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2006, 7:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/checkbox-tag-outside-a-form/95943/1 "2006-06-20T19:34:58Z")
Is it possible to use checkbox\_tag outside a form? I’ve put it in a view and it renders but I get nothing back in the params hash. Is there a way to get the value? Like maybe with some JS onsubmit to populate the params hash myself? Thanks, Bill ---
**Author:** ![wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wpwood)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 2:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/checkbox-tag-outside-a-form/95943/2 "2006-08-03T14:24:04Z")
Bill W. wrote: > Is it possible to use checkbox\_tag outside a form? I’ve put it in a view and it renders but I get nothing back in the params hash. Is there a way to get the value? Like maybe with some JS onsubmit to populate the params hash myself? > > Thanks, > Bill I think the easiest solution is to spread our your tags so that the checkbox falls between them. If there’s just one form on the page, I don’t think there’s anything particularly wrong with … although that’s usually a bit extreme. If, for whatever reason, that’s not practical (maybe due to different partials and layouts breaking things up too much), then you could place a hidden tag in the form, and use an onChange event at the checkbox to update the value of the hidden tag. Then, the value of the hidden tag is what will be available in the params hash on the server. That’s a bit more complicated, but not too difficult if you’re familiar with javascript and onChange events. Of course, if the user has javascript disabled, then this won’t work at all. So, I’d recommend just finding a way to spread out those tags. ---
**Author:** ![wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wpwood)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 2:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/checkbox-tag-outside-a-form/95943/3 "2006-08-15T14:21:42Z")
Hi Jonathan, Jonathan M. wrote: > I think the easiest solution is to spread our your > > tags so that the checkbox falls between them. If there's just one form on the page, That’s the problem. This posting was actually a follow-on to an earlier one where I thought the solution to my problem could be solved by using checkbox\_tag outside a form. Doesn’t look like it now. I’ve included the earlier post below just in case you have any ideas. Thanks much, Bill * * * ----- Original Message ----- From: Bill W. To: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 9:03 AM Subject: [Rails] Soliciting suggestions - Form within a Form Greetings! I could use some suggestions on how to proceed from where I am to where I want to go. I’m working on an app that collects info from the visitor and saves it to a file. The file can later be read in for update. To collect the info, the app presents a form with a set of checkboxes. The state of the checkboxes at initial presentation is controlled by a summary record that is created / populated when the file is read in for updating. The record contains fields for each of the checkboxes with the value = ‘y’ or ‘n’. In addition to a set of ‘standard’ selections, the form also has a checkbox labeled ‘Other’. Currently, when the form is submitted, individual records are created for each checked checkbox for the standard selections. If the ‘Other’ checkbox is checked, after records are created for the ‘standard’ items, I render a second page with a form that allows them to enter one or more other items. Individual records for those items are created via RJS as the items are entered. I’d like to allow the addition of the ‘Other’ items on the same page as the standard checkbox selections. If the visitor checks the ‘Other’ checkbox, I want to replace the checkbox with the partial that’s currently being rendered on the second page. I can do that by putting the ‘Other’ checkbox in a and doing an RJS ‘replace\_html’. Unfortunately RoR doesn’t support forms within forms. Clicking the ‘Submit’ button on the sub-form submits the entire form. So that doesn’t work for me. I’m considering eliminating the top level form and just using a ‘button\_to’ to pass the entered info from the view back to the controller. Pro: The ‘Other’ form processing works fine Con: Since they’re not contained within a form anymore, the checkboxes aren’t serialized and passed to the controller via the params hash. I believe I can use ‘checkbox\_tag’ instead of ‘checkbox’ to get the values back to the controller, but that leaves me with the chore of initializing them for presentation from the values in the summary record. Overall, this path feels non-Railish. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Bill ---
**Author:** ![wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wpwood)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 2:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/checkbox-tag-outside-a-form/95943/4 "2006-09-04T14:45:54Z")
hi there, it´s not really that ror doesn´t support forms in forms… it´s the browsers that don´t. we had a problem a bit like yours. what we did is just place the “subform” in a that was outside the other form and just positioned it “inside” the other form later. that worked. kind regards, alexander