Rails adding dashes to text field in db

Rails
1

I have a model called notes. Here’s the definition in my schema.rb

create_table “notes”, :force => true do |t|
t.column “sales_order_id”, :integer
t.column “content”, :text
t.column “timestamp”, :datetime
t.column “user_id”, :integer
end

The model class is as follows:

class Note < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :sales_order
belongs_to :user
end

I’m trying to add a note by doing the following in the
sales_order_controller:

def add_note
da_note = Note.new
da_note.sales_order_id = params[:so_id]
da_note.content = params[:note_body]
da_note.user_id = cookies[:user_id]
da_note.timestamp = Time.now

if da_note.save!
  flash[:notice] = 'Note added to Sales Order'
  redirect_to :action => 'show', :id => params[:so_id]
end

end

This works, but it adds the following text to the content field of every
note: “-- -”. So if I type in ‘test note’ and submit, I get ‘— -
test note’ in the db. What am I doing wrong here?

2

are you calling debug() in your view anywhere? or to_yaml?

3

Chris H. wrote:

are you calling debug() in your view anywhere? or to_yaml?

No, I tried that at first, but it didn’t help anything.

I just now changed

params[:note_body]

to:

params[:note_body].to_s and it worked!

Why does it have to be changed to a string? Isn’t it already a string?

4

Jason wrote:

params[:note_body].to_s and it worked!

Why does it have to be changed to a string? Isn’t it already a string?

Only you can tell us. Still a breakpoint in there and have a look at the
params hash.

Fred

5

Frederick C. wrote:

Jason wrote:

params[:note_body].to_s and it worked!

Why does it have to be changed to a string? Isn’t it already a string?

Only you can tell us. Still a breakpoint in there and have a look at the
params hash.

Fred

I’m afraid you’ve gone over my head with that comment. What will the
params hash tell me that I don’t already know?

6

Unfortunately no. Unlike Smalltalk and many other languages, in Ruby
Symbols are not strings.

The value in params[:note_body] was apparently a symbol not a string.

Michael

7

you can just tail your development log and watch it as you post the
data to the server. that should indicate where the problem is coming
from. if you see – - in your params hash (posted data) then the
problem is in your view. if it’s not, then the problem is in your
controller method

8

The value in params[:note_body] was apparently a symbol not a string.

Ok, I guess it was a symbol, but I don’t have any idea how that
happened. Oh well, it works now, at least.

Thanks everybody!