Form_tag and html id

Rails
1

I’m using Rails 1.2.3 and have been wrestling with the form_tag
helper trying to get the HTML id for the form set.

My form_tag initially looked like this:

<% form_tag :controller => ‘my_controller’, :action => ‘my_action’ do %>

and I thought it should be as easy as adding :html => {:id => ‘my_id’}:

<% form_tag :controller => ‘my_controller’, :action =>
‘my_action’, :html => {:id => ‘my_id’} do %>

After all, that’s how the form_remote_tag works:

<% form_remote_tag :controller => ‘my_controller’, :action =>
‘my_action’, :html => {:id => ‘my_id’} do %>

Much to my chagrin, it didn’t work. I did a lot of searching and
experimenting, and finally figured out that you have to make two
changes to get it to work. First, you have to use a string literal
for the url. Second, you can’t specify the :html hash key:

<% form_tag ‘/my_controller/my_action’, {:id => ‘my_id’} do %>

Two questions:

  1. Does anyone know why the form_tag helper is inconsistent with both
    the form_remote_tag helper and the more Rails-traditional way of
    specifying urls (:controller, :action)?
  2. Does anyone know if this behavior has been changed in 2.0?

Peace,
Phillip

2

<% form_tag {:controller => ‘my_controller’, :action => ‘my_action’},
:id => ‘my_id’ do %>

-Bill

3

Sorry, forgot to answer #2. There has been talk on the rails-core list
about making this, along with link_to and others follow the single hash
convention, but it has not been changed yet.

-Bill

4

On Dec 12, 2007, at 1:26 PM, William P. wrote:

<% form_tag {:controller => ‘my_controller’, :action =>
‘my_action’}, :id => ‘my_id’ do %>

-Bill

Hi Bill,

That results in a compile error. The only way that I can get it to
work is to use a string literal (or variable, I suppose…haven’t
tried that) for the url.

Peace,
Phillip

5

On Dec 12, 2007, at 4:02 PM, Phillip K. wrote:

tried that) for the url.

Peace,
Phillip

Try it like:

<% form_tag({:controller => ‘my_controller’,
:action => ‘my_action’},
:id => ‘my_id’) do %>

The first { is probably being seen as starting a block.

-Rob

Rob B. http://agileconsultingllc.com
[email protected]

6

On Dec 12, 2007, at 3:21 PM, Rob B. wrote:

Rob B. http://agileconsultingllc.com
[email protected]

Rob,

Putting the parentheses around the parameters made it output
correctly. If only it would have been as easy as form_remote_tag to
begin with…

Bill,

Thanks for your comments as well. Maybe someone will be a bug in
their pants and decide to fix it.

Peace,
Phillip