# "Choose from These Options, or Create a New Option" **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [August 24, 2007, 11:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/choose-from-these-options-or-create-a-new-option/112909 "2007-08-24T11:51:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![adistarmid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@adistarmid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/adistarmid)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2007, 11:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/choose-from-these-options-or-create-a-new-option/112909/1 "2007-08-24T11:51:05Z")
Let’s say I have a dropdown selection list of existing teachers. The user can (1) select any one teacher, or (2) create a new one. How would you tackle something like that? I’m thinking what I could do is check if there’s any data inputted into the “new teacher” field – and if there is, create a new teacher. But, the issue with that is the user might also have an existing teacher highlighted, so that creates confusion – (not to mention bad usability!) Based on your supreme knowledge, how would you approach something like this? ---
**Author:** ![adistarmid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@adistarmid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/adistarmid)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2007, 12:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/choose-from-these-options-or-create-a-new-option/112909/2 "2007-08-24T12:03:22Z")
Bob S. wrote: > Based on your supreme knowledge, how would you approach something like > this? I don’t think you should allow people to create new teachers this way - you need to control the quality of people who teach the future!! 🙂 But seriously, I’ve given the same thing some thought for one of my applications (and haven’t yet implemented anything for it) but in my opinion, there are a couple of main ways to do it: 1. Have an option for ‘Other (enter below):’ and the person has to select that option and enter a name in the new teacher box. 2. Use Javascript & AJAX that if such an option is selected, it darkens out some of the screen and shows a div that allows you to create a new teacher record and then updates the select box. 3. Have a checkbox that allows you to create a new teacher. When the user checks it, the drop down select list is hidden and a new field is shown for creating a teacher. What do you think? Cheers, Mohit. 8/24/2007 | 6:01 PM. ---
**Author:** ![adistarmid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@adistarmid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/adistarmid)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2007, 5:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/choose-from-these-options-or-create-a-new-option/112909/3 "2007-08-24T17:41:20Z")
> Let’s say I have a dropdown selection list of existing teachers. The > user can (1) select any one teacher, or (2) create a new one. > > How would you tackle something like that? > > I’m thinking what I could do is check if there’s any data inputted into > the “new teacher” field – and if there is, create a new teacher. But, > the issue with that is the user might also have an existing teacher > highlighted, so that creates confusion – (not to mention bad > usability!) You could use auto\_complete\_field to have a simple text field. They type in the name, it pulls up a list. If they don’t like one of those options, they finish typing and (assuming you only need the teacher’s name) you create a new teacher record when they submit the form. If you need more information, I’d have a “Other/New” option in the select box, and have it overlay a div asking for that info like the other poster suggested. ---
**Author:** ![adistarmid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@adistarmid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/adistarmid)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2007, 11:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/choose-from-these-options-or-create-a-new-option/112909/4 "2007-08-26T11:06:10Z")
Bob S. wrote: > Bob, If you do get the AJAX one done, do consider sharing 🙂 Cheers, Mohit. 8/26/2007 | 5:03 PM. ---
**Author:** ![adistarmid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@adistarmid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/adistarmid)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2007, 10:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/choose-from-these-options-or-create-a-new-option/112909/5 "2007-08-24T22:12:27Z")
Philip and Mohit, Thank you for the replies! I’m going to try all of your various ideas and see which works best. The AJAX one sounds really cool, and I think would be very use-friendly if done right. Of course, relying on my skills isn’t the best, so we’ll see what happens 🙂 Thanks again! ---
**Author:** ![adistarmid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@adistarmid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/adistarmid)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2007, 4:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/choose-from-these-options-or-create-a-new-option/112909/6 "2007-08-27T16:48:45Z")
On 8/26/07, Mohit S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > Thanks again! > > Bob, > > If you do get the AJAX one done, do consider sharing 🙂 I do this in quite a few different places in my app… In one instance, an Event belongs\_to a venue, so I give the user the option to select any venue from a list, or they can create a new one by clicking on the “Create new venue…” option in the dropdown (I use a javascript onclick handler to detect when they select the appropriate option). I then display a hidden div which contains a form for creating a new venue. An event can also be associated with an artist, so I use an ajax autocomplete field to display a list of artists. I then use something like @event.artist = Artist.find\_or\_initialize\_by\_artist\_name(params[:artist\_name]) which will either retrieve the Artist with the given name, or it’ll create a new instance, which will then be saved when I call @event.save. So the Ajax code isn’t necessarily very complicated, it’s just a standard autocomplete field and uses find\_or\_initialize\_by\_\*. Adam ---
**Author:** ![adistarmid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@adistarmid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/adistarmid)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 4:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/choose-from-these-options-or-create-a-new-option/112909/7 "2007-08-29T04:42:15Z")
Adam C. wrote: > > > Of course, relying on my skills isn’t the best, so we’ll see what > > like @event.artist = > Artist.find\_or\_initialize\_by\_artist\_name(params[:artist\_name]) which > will either retrieve the Artist with the given name, or it’ll create a > new instance, which will then be saved when I call @event.save. > > So the Ajax code isn’t necessarily very complicated, it’s just a > standard autocomplete field and uses find\_or\_initialize\_by\_\*. > > Adam Thanks Adam! Cheers, Mohit. 8/29/2007 | 10:41 AM.