Kludge for drop-down list

Rails
1

The following is a kludge to generate a drop down list of the rows for
the “categories” table (from the “Category” model).

thufir@arrakis ~/Desktop/strawr $
thufir@arrakis ~/Desktop/strawr $ tail app/views/feeds/show.rhtml -n 2

<%= select(:category, :id, Category.find(:all).collect {|c| [
c.category,
c.id ] } ) %>
thufir@arrakis ~/Desktop/strawr $

However, I’d rather put a method in feeds_controller.rb if that’s
possible. Would that be a better way to generate the drop down list?

thanks,

Thufir

2

On 26 Dec 2007, at 09:25, Thufir wrote:

thufir@arrakis ~/Desktop/strawr $

However, I’d rather put a method in feeds_controller.rb if that’s
possible. Would that be a better way to generate the drop down list?

If you want to wrap this up in a method put it in feeds_helper.rb

Fred

3

On Wed, 26 Dec 2007 12:00:39 +0000, Frederick C. wrote:

If you want to wrap this up in a method put it in feeds_helper.rb

I’ve done an admittedly brief google and haven’t found much. Am I on
the
right track?

http://api.rubyonrails.com/classes/ActionView/Helpers/FormHelper.html

thanks,

Thufir

4

PLEASE! Do not put model code in the view. It’s like putting onion in
ice
cream.

5

If you want the helper to be available to all templates in the app,
define
it in application_helper.rb otherwise define it in category_helper.rb.

On Dec 26, 2007 1:25 AM, Thufir [email protected] wrote:

However, I’d rather put a method in feeds_controller.rb if that’s
possible. Would that be a better way to generate the drop down list?

–
http://www.rubyplus.org/
Free Ruby and Rails Screencasts

6

On Dec 26, 3:04 pm, “Ryan B.” [email protected] wrote:

PLEASE! Do not put model code in the view. It’s like putting onion in ice
cream.

I’m not clear on what you mean. The attributes/fields for the model
are defined at
http://strawr.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/db/migrate/002_feeds.rb,
not really in http://strawr.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/app/models/feed.rb.
However, I suppose that’s still within the “model” for MVC.

The point is to have the drop-down list at
http://strawr.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/app/views/feeds/show.rhtml give
the same result as

Category.find :all
=> [#<Category:0xb700b90c @attributes={“category”=>“some category”,
“id”=>“1”}>]

does from script/console, albeit without the hexadecimal.

I understand the generalities, that in MVC the different parts are
intentionally not overlapping. Yes, the view should stay with view
stuff. Concretely, what do you mean?

-Thufir

7

On Wed, 26 Dec 2007 12:41:56 -0800, Bala P. wrote:

If you want the helper to be available to all templates in the app,
define it in application_helper.rb otherwise define it in
category_helper.rb.

Yes, I want to edit <http://strawr.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/app/helpers/
application_helper.rb> to, umm, help the controller(s) list the
categories through the various show.rhtml’s, but in a correct,
non-kludgy
way.

Pardon, no I haven’t done much research into how to do that specific
operation, but could I have some direction as to how to do that? I want
to render the views without going back to the database.

thanks,

Thufir

8

You’re doing a Model.find request in the model. This should be done in
the
controller. There should be no going back to the database when it’s
trying
to render views.

–
Ryan B.

Feel free to add me to MSN and/or GTalk as this email.

9

On Dec 26, 4:00 am, Frederick C. [email protected]
wrote:
[…]

If you want to wrap this up in a method put it in feeds_helper.rb
[…]

I would like to wrap the it up in a method in application_helper.rb
but don’t from reading
http://api.rubyonrails.com/classes/ActionView/Helpers/FormHelper.html
and other sources don’t know what method to create.

I want a drop down list for the model
http://strawr.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/app/models/category.rb
to replace the kludge to generate that list, as it’s currently done,
at http://strawr.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/app/views/feeds/show.rhtml .

How does the method in application_helper.rb get “called”?

thanks,

Thufir

10

On 29 Dec 2007, at 04:18, Thufir wrote:

Peak Obsession
and other sources don’t know what method to create.

I want a drop down list for the model http://strawr.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/app/models/category.rb
to replace the kludge to generate that list, as it’s currently done,
at http://strawr.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/app/views/feeds/show.rhtml .

How does the method in application_helper.rb get “called”?

You can put whatever you want in feeds_helper, application helper
etc… Those modules are included in view templates as appropriate.

So if you have
module FeedsHelper
def my_helper
end
end

You can do <%= my_helper %> in your view. From a helper you can call
all the helper functions you normally have access to.

Fred

11

On Dec 29, 4:48 am, Frederick C. [email protected]
wrote:
[…]

So if you have
module FeedsHelper
def my_helper
end
end

You can do <%= my_helper %> in your view. From a helper you can call
all the helper functions you normally have access to.

Fred

Thanks, Fred, that helps quite a bit. Something like:

module FeedsHelper
def list_categories
Category.find(:all)
end
end

-Thufir

12

On Sun, 30 Dec 2007 08:14:43 +0000, Frederick C. wrote:

def select_category
select :category, :id, Category.some_find_method.collect {|c|
[ c.category, c.id ]
end

I think that I would get better results if I tried to do this at three
pm
instead of three am!

Ok, I got it working, but it feels equally kludgy:

thufir@arrakis ~/Desktop/strawr $
thufir@arrakis ~/Desktop/strawr $ cat app/helpers/application_helper.rb

Methods added to this helper will be available to all templates in the

application.
module ApplicationHelper

def select_category

select :category, :id, Category.some_find_method.collect {|c|

[ c.category, c.id ]}
select :category, :id, Category.find(:all).collect {|c|
[ c.category, c.id ]}

end
end

thufir@arrakis ~/Desktop/strawr $
thufir@arrakis ~/Desktop/strawr $ tail app/views/feeds/show.rhtml –
lines=1
<%= select_category %>
thufir@arrakis ~/Desktop/strawr $

However, that achieves the purpose. I think what bothers me, slightly,
is the complexity of the compound line in the select_category method. I
can read it, sorta, but can’t write it :frowning:

However, I’ll live :slight_smile:

Oh, now I get it. I must be tired. I need to define a few
“some_find_method”'s, like: categories linked to this feed, categories
not linked to this category, etc. These methods are in the same module?

I was thinking of refining the query from all records to just those
records which are linked to the particular object. However, since I
have
trouble writing that in English, I’ll take a pass and come back to that.

I would like have two buttons: “link” and “unlink”.

When “link” is clicked then a row the “tags” table (horrible name) is
created with the feeds_id and categories_id values. (If it creates the
same relationship ten times, that’s ok for now). The unlink would
delete
the corresponding row from the “tags” table.

I followed the Apple demo and created Google Code Archive - Long-term storage for Google Code Project Hosting.
expenses/ , which has buttons kind-of along this line. However, it’s a
one-to-many wheras I want a many-to-many. Plus, I think that the Apple
tutorial is more than a little dated.

Just thinking outloud. What kind of button would be sufficient for what
I describe? I’m a bit more confident with how the show.rhtml interacts
with methods, but: which method in which class for a “submit” type
button? where does the button go?

Just thinking out loud, and will be googling tomorrow :slight_smile:

-Thufir

13

On 29 Dec 2007, at 23:43, Thufir wrote:

You can do <%= my_helper %> in your view. From a helper you can call
end

You’re on the way there.
If it was me then I’d have a method on categories that did the find
for me, with the right conditions etc…
Then in Feeds Helper i’d have

def select_category
select :category, :id, Category.some_find_method.collect {|c|
[ c.category, c.id ]
end

Fred

14

On Sun, 30 Dec 2007 08:14:43 +0000, Frederick C. wrote:

If it was me then I’d have a method on categories that did the find for
me, with the right conditions etc…

Right; for now it’s ok and I want to move forward. In which file would
you put this query?

thanks,

Thufir