Form Tags

Rails
1

This is a total newbie question, so my apologies!

I am learning Ruby from the book Ruby for rails - the only issue is the
examples seem to have been written in a earlier version of Ruby.

The code in question is

<%= form_tag :controller => "customer",
              :action     => "login" %>
<p>User name: <%= text_field "customer", "nick"  %></p>
<p>Password: <%= password_field "customer", "password"  %></p>
<p><input type="Submit", value="Log in"/></p>
 <% end_form_tag %>

Which gives the error

undefined local variable or method `end_form_tag’ for
#ActionView::Base:0x1c39e38

I appreciate that the end_form_tag has been depreciated, I tried
replacing it with <% end %>

Which then gives

compile error
/Users/pmoran/rails/r4music1/app/views/customer/_login.html.erb:9:
syntax error, unexpected kENSURE, expecting $end

I can’t see any examples on the documentation which also specify the
controller, as I say I am a total Ruby newbie so please go easy on me
here!

2

Hi Pete,

On Thu, 2009-07-30 at 18:51 +0200, Pete M. wrote:

This is a total newbie question, so my apologies!

No need. Welcome aboard!

I am learning Ruby from the book Ruby for rails - the only issue is the
examples seem to have been written in a earlier version of Ruby.

Very common issue.

I appreciate that the end_form_tag has been depreciated, I tried
replacing it with <% end %>

Which then gives

compile error
/Users/pmoran/rails/r4music1/app/views/customer/_login.html.erb:9:
syntax error, unexpected kENSURE, expecting $end

<% end %> is correct.

I believe your problem is that if you’re going to use
the :controller/:action syntax, you need to enclose them in {}. e.g.,

<%= form_tag {:controller => “customer”, :action => “login”} %>

You’ll want to learn to use Google as your first lines of defense :wink:
I recommend that whenever you get an error, you enter it into your
Google search bar preceded by the word ‘rails’.

using the above as an example… Google

rails syntax error, unexpected kENSURE, expecting $end

You’ll also want to learn to read the rails documentation.

api.rubyonrails.org

Focus first on the methods which are in the lower pane on the left.

I can’t see any examples on the documentation which also specify the
controller, as I say I am a total Ruby newbie so please go easy on me
here!

The easiest way to get a handle on some of this basic stuff is to use
the scaffold feature. You’ll get the full stack. I recommend
generating a rails app named ‘sandbox’. Keep it around for working out
issues / problems later.

rails sandbox

rake db:create:all

ruby script/scaffold test_model field1:string field2:text field3:integer

The files generated will give you the basics of the current syntax.

HTH,
Bill

3

Thanks Bill,

I did try google first, but didn’t find the correct answer :slight_smile:

OK - I tried what you said, but that seemed to give me a new problem :frowning:

<%= form_tag {:controller => "customer", :action => "login"} %>

<p>User name: <%= text_field "customer", "nick"  %></p>
<p>Password: <%= password_field "customer", "password"  %></p>
<p><input type="Submit", value="Log in"/></p>
 <% end %>

Error now is

syntax error, unexpected tASSOC, expecting ‘}’
…cat(( form_tag {:controller => “customer”, :action => "login…
^
/Users/pmoran/rails/r4music1/app/views/customer/_login.html.erb:1:
syntax error, unexpected ‘,’, expecting ‘}’
…ag {:controller => “customer”, :action => “login”} ).to_s); …
^
/Users/pmoran/rails/r4music1/app/views/customer/_login.html.erb:9:
syntax error, unexpected kENSURE, expecting $end

In terms of the scaffold stuff, well I also tried that and got a error
:frowning:

rake db:create:all
rake aborted!
No Rakefile found (looking for: rakefile, Rakefile, rakefile.rb,
Rakefile.rb)
/opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2377:in
`raw_load_rakefile’
(See full trace by running task with --trace)

And then

ruby script/scaffold test_model field1:string field2:text
field3:integer
ruby: No such file or directory – script/scaffold (LoadError)

4

On Jul 30, 2009, at 12:51 PM, Pete M. wrote:

User name: <%= text_field "customer", "nick" %>

I appreciate that the end_form_tag has been depreciated, I tried here!

form_tag now takes block and the tag is implicit

<% form_tag :controller => "customer",
              :action     => "login"      do |form| %>
  <p>User name: <%= text_field "customer", "nick"  %></p>
  <p>Password: <%= password_field "customer", "password"  %></p>
  <p><input type="Submit", value="Log in"/></p>
<% end %>

Note that the form_tag is in <% %> rather than <%= %>
The <% end %> is for the block that is started by the ‘do’.

It also looks like you may have a Customer model and if that is the
case, then you probably want something like (assuming you have tucked
it into an instance variable with ‘@customer = Customer.new’ in your
controller):

<% form_for @customer, :url => { :controller => "customer",
                         :action     => "login" } do |form| %>
  <p><%= form.label :nick, "User name:" %>
     <%= form.text_field :nick  %></p>
  <p><%= form.label :password, "Password:" %>
     <%= form.password_field :password %></p>
  <p><%= submit_tag "Log in" %></p>
<% end %>

-Rob

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

5

Hi Pete,

It looks like you have more than one problem. For starters, what
platform are you using? OS, Ruby, Rails

ruby -v
rails -v

On Thu, 2009-07-30 at 19:39 +0200, Pete M. wrote:

Thanks Bill,

You’re welcome.

^ /Users/pmoran/rails/r4music1/app/views/customer/_login.html.erb:9: syntax error, unexpected kENSURE, expecting $end

As a first step, try wrappiing the {…} in parens.
form_tag( {:controller => “customer”, :action => “login”}

If that doesn’t fix it, post the whole view file.

In terms of the scaffold stuff, well I also tried that and got a error
:frowning:

My bad. Incomplete / incorrect instructions.

rails sandbox # this assumes you’re ok with sqlite, otherwise,
# use -d to specify your database of choice

cd sandbox # beyond the initial step of creating your rails
# app, all other commands must take place within
# an app directory

rake db:create:all

even had you been in an app directory, the command I sent

was incorrect. use the following instead.

ruby script/generate scaffold test_model field1:string field2:text
field3:integer

ruby script/scaffold test_model field1:string field2:text
field3:integer
ruby: No such file or directory – script/scaffold (LoadError)

Both of these occurred because you weren’t in the sandbox app directory.

HTH,
Bill