# List of Checkboxes **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [January 30, 2007, 12:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/list-of-checkboxes/83876 "2007-01-30T12:24:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![laurin1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/919ad9/32.png) [@laurin1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/laurin1)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 12:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/list-of-checkboxes/83876/1 "2007-01-30T12:24:53Z")
Hi, Does anyone have a link or information on how to handle lists of checkboxes in rails? I am working on a property site and each property has a list of features which are rendered as a list of checkboxes. I am trying to figure out how to handle which ones are checked and which not and persist them back to the database. Sorry for the noob question. Keith ---
**Author:** ![laurin1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/919ad9/32.png) [@laurin1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/laurin1)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 12:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/list-of-checkboxes/83876/2 "2007-01-30T12:43:22Z")
The check\_box helper in your view and a call to update\_attributes in your controller are all you need 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![laurin1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/919ad9/32.png) [@laurin1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/laurin1)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 12:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/list-of-checkboxes/83876/3 "2007-01-30T12:49:58Z")
Cool, Didn’t know there was a checkbox helper. Thanks for the answer. Keith ---
**Author:** ![laurin1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/919ad9/32.png) [@laurin1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/laurin1)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2007, 1:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/list-of-checkboxes/83876/4 "2007-01-31T13:05:09Z")
Hi! On Jan 30, 2007, at 14:43, Mick S. wrote: > The check\_box helper in your view and a call to update\_attributes in > your controller are all you need 🙂 Could you please give me the example of using the checkbox helper? I need to show a list of tags so that tags belonging to the page are checked. I’m bewildered with “method” parameter — it should be a string and I don’t know how to write it if I want to call @page.includes?(topic). Your sincerely, Damian/Three-eyed Fish ---
**Author:** ![laurin1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/919ad9/32.png) [@laurin1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/laurin1)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2007, 2:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/list-of-checkboxes/83876/5 "2007-01-31T14:31:18Z")
hi damian i recently did a similar thing, so here’s maybe what you are looking for - it may not be the best or most elegant way - i didn’t use checkbox helper, because i couldn’t get it going properly - i’m still a newbie, but this works in your view: \<% for section in @sections%\> \” name=“section\_ids[]” value="\<%=section.id%\>" \<%if @content.sections.include? section %\> checked=“checked” \<%end%\> > \<%=section.name%\> \<% end%\> in controller (new or create): @content.sections= Section.find(@params[:section\_ids]) if @params[:section\_ids] hope this helps george ---
**Author:** ![laurin1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/919ad9/32.png) [@laurin1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/laurin1)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2007, 3:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/list-of-checkboxes/83876/6 "2007-01-31T15:26:24Z")
On Tuesday 30 January 2007 12:24, Keith D. wrote: > Does anyone have a link or information on how to handle lists of > checkboxes in rails? Try this plugin [http://www.agilewebdevelopment.com/plugins/multiple\_select\_helper](http://www.agilewebdevelopment.com/plugins/multiple_select_helper) HTH, Michael – Michael S. [mailto:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) [http://www.schuerig.de/michael/](http://www.schuerig.de/michael/) ---
**Author:** ![laurin1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/919ad9/32.png) [@laurin1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/laurin1)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2007, 4:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/list-of-checkboxes/83876/7 "2007-01-31T16:11:29Z")
Thanks Michael, Just tried it out and it does exactly what I was looking for and in good rails style it took about 5 minutes as well. Keith ---
**Author:** ![laurin1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/919ad9/32.png) [@laurin1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/laurin1)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2007, 2:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/list-of-checkboxes/83876/8 "2007-01-31T14:35:17Z")
I just tend to use: \<%= check\_box(“product”, “is\_active”) %\> where “product” is an AR object stored in @product, and “is\_active” is a column name of type boolean (if the method is a string, it is taken to be an AR column name). Further information can be found in the Rails wiki: [http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowToUseCheckBoxes](http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowToUseCheckBoxes) ---
**Author:** ![laurin1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/919ad9/32.png) [@laurin1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/laurin1)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 7:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/list-of-checkboxes/83876/9 "2007-02-01T07:37:42Z")
On Jan 31, 2007, at 16:30, mr\_robot wrote: > \” name=“section\_ids[]” > in controller (new or create): > @content.sections= Section.find(@params[:section\_ids]) if > @params[:section\_ids] > > hope this helps > > george Thank you very much! This is an approach I’m using now, I just wanted to see whether I can write less code. I’m thinking of writing my own helper for it, but as I’m a newbie, I should find out how to do it. Yours sincerely, Damian/Three-eyed Fish