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**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [August 10, 2010, 11:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dynamically-creating-the-html-for-forms-created-by-user-in-application/193036 "2010-08-10T11:19:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1
**Author:**  [@rtdp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rtdp)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 11:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dynamically-creating-the-html-for-forms-created-by-user-in-application/193036/1 "2010-08-10T11:19:13Z")
hello,
In my rails application, a user creates a form by selecting the type
of the data i.e.(string, integer, text) and he then gives input filed
name for it.
i.e. if user wants Name as capition, txtname as input field name and
string as database field type the form will generated as -
Name:
So how can create this html from this user given information. Is there
a plugin for this work ?
---
**Author:**  [@rtdp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rtdp)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dynamically-creating-the-html-for-forms-created-by-user-in-application/193036/2 "2010-08-10T20:19:06Z")
On Aug 10, 2:30 am, Rtdp [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:
> So how can create this html from this user given information. Is there
> a plugin for this work ?
This is a pretty common use case in lots of applications, and
depending on what sorts of customization you want to allow your users,
you can get quite complex with it if you like. But in the simple
case, you basically want four model classes, divided roughly into a
set of two for the form creators, and two for the users filling out
the forms. Here’s an example using your terminology:
UserForm is a form created by a user
FormField is a field on a UserForm, which contains a caption, a type,
and a txtname
UserForm has\_many :form\_fields
…and, parallel to these, for the users filling out the forms…
FormReply is one instance of a UserForm that’s been filled out
ReplyValue is the answer the user gave to a particular FormField
FormReply has\_many :reply\_values, and belongs\_to :user\_form
(and UserForm has\_many :form\_replies)
When generating the HTML for this kind of thing, the key concept to
keep in mind is that what the user’s actually doing is _creating a
FormReply_. Thus, the ERB template might look like this:
\<%= form\_for(@form\_reply) do |f| %\>
\<%= fields\_for :reply\_values do |value\_fields| %\>
\<%= value\_fields.text\_field :value %\>
\<% end %\>
\<%= f.submit\_tag %\>
\<% end %\>
The above template assumes you’ve set FormReply to accept nested
attributes for reply\_values, and that you’re going to populate a blank
set of them in the controller action.
Of course, this is only one way to do it, and I’m sure others have
differing opinions on approaches… 🙂
Nat
---
**Author:**  [@rtdp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rtdp)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dynamically-creating-the-html-for-forms-created-by-user-in-application/193036/3 "2010-08-27T18:26:21Z")
Ok, now i have implemented something similar to this from database
perspective, but not from views and actual html generation thing. Will
give
try to above idea of for generating actual html using form\_for method
itself.
Thanks Nat.
On Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 11:48 PM, Nat B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:
> >
>
> ## (and UserForm has\_many :form\_replies) \<% end %\>
>
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---
**Author:**  [@rtdp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rtdp)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 6:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dynamically-creating-the-html-for-forms-created-by-user-in-application/193036/4 "2010-08-27T18:40:24Z")
On a side note, if your application primarily relies on user generated
forms, a documentbased/key-value database might be a better option.
I’m talking about databases like MongoDB and the likes.
> **[Using Mongomapper to store dynamic data](https://www.slideshare.net/wonko/using-mongomapper-to-store-dynamic-data)**
>
> MONGODB AND RUBY Persisting dynamic data with MongoMapper MONGODB • humongous • auto-sharding • Speed!!! ...
As mentioned below, the whole stack for implementing dynamic fields in
a relational database adds up to 4 or more models. If you want to
retrieve all the data, you’ll end up with quite a few joins, which
might impact performance quite a bit.
On 27 Aug 2010, at 18:24, Ratnadeep wrote:
> you can get quite complex with it if you like. But in the simple
>
> Of course, this is only one way to do it, and I’m sure others have
> differing opinions on approaches… 🙂
Best regards
Peter De Berdt