List of unchecked checkboxes

Hi all

Having kinda trouble with checkboxes. Let’s assume “Order
has_and_belongs_to_many :products” and vice versa. Now let’s assume
there are products with IDs 1, 2 and 3 in the db and I’m editing an
existing Order with the following view:

<% form_for(:order) do |f| %>
<% f.check_box(:product_ids, 1) %>
<% f.check_box(:product_ids, 2) %>
<% f.check_box(:product_ids, 3) %>
<% end %>

First let’s set all checkboxes. The resulting params hash will be:
param[:order][:product_ids] # => [‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’]

This is perfect as the controller code will do as desired:
@order.update_attributes(params[:order])
@order.product_ids # => [1,2,3]

But now the same with all checkboxes NOT set. The params hash:
param[:order][:product_ids] # => nil

Way uncool, because this is what the controller does:
@order.update_attributes(params[:order])
@order.product_ids # => [1,2,3]

It would be cool though to have an empty array instead of nil in the
params hash there as this would correctly remove all referenced products
from this order.

Now I could of course add this to the controller:
@order.product_ids = [] if @order.product_ids.nil?

But as my view code is generated by a FormHelper plugin, I’d like to
make it work without the need to touch the controller code.

Can I add anything to the view that will ensure the params hash will
return [] rather than nil if no checkbox is set?

Thanks for your help, -sven

You could do this before calling update_attributes:

param[:order][:product_ids] ||= []

This will initialize the product_ids parameter to an empty array if it
is nil.

If you want to make this the default behavior, you’ll need to open up
some Rails code. Not sure exactly where you’d make a change, but it
should be possible in just a few lines of code.

<% form_for(:order) do |f| %>
<% f.check_box(:product_ids, 1) %>
<% f.check_box(:product_ids, 2) %>
<% f.check_box(:product_ids, 3) %>
<% end %>

This is wrong anyway, should be:

<% form_for(:order) do |f| %>
<% f.check_box(‘product_ids[]’, 1) %>
<% f.check_box(‘product_ids[]’, 2) %>
<% f.check_box(‘product_ids[]’, 3) %>
<% end %>

I found a solution myself :slight_smile: Seems to work at least with the UrlParser
in Rails 2.0.2.

<% form_for(:order) do |f| %>
<% f.hidden_input(‘product_ids[]’, ‘’) %>
<% f.check_box(‘product_ids[]’, 1) %>
<% f.check_box(‘product_ids[]’, 2) %>
<% f.check_box(‘product_ids[]’, 3) %>
<% end %>

The empty value is skipped when the IDs are compiled, but it enforces an
[] in the params hash if nonoe of the checkboxes are selected.

I have a similar problem, but but your solution doesn’t seem to work
for me.

I have something like this:
<% form_for…

<%for category in @categories do%>
<% f.check_box(‘category_ids[]’,category.id)%>
<%end%>

<%end%>

But I get a
“undefined method `merge’ for 1:Fixnum”

on the check_box line.

Any ideas on whats different? If I hard code the id as you have I get
the same result.

Thanks,
j

On Jan 18, 1:53 am, Sven S. [email protected]

Thanks, but I can’t seem to make that version of the fuction work
either. That’s ok though I’ll look elswhere to find a working example
of what I’m trying to do, just thought this was it.

Thanks,
j

On Jan 25, 1:55 am, Sven S. [email protected]

<%for category in @categories do%>
<% f.check_box(‘category_ids[]’,category.id)%>
<%end%>

I’m using check_box_tag (for contextual reasons, it’s in a plugin), but
it looks to me as if you use the check_box helper incorrectly.

According to the doc at http://www.railsapi.org/check_box it should be
as follows:

f.check_box(method, options = {}, checked_value = “1”, unchecked_value =
“0”)

So you pass a number (category.id) where a hash (options) is expected.