RoR - Complicated default value for a text_area

Rails
1

Hi guys,

I got a small problem. I want to give a text_area a default value.
The default value is a range of numbers, seperated with a comma.

So the first thing which is given is a String that looks like followed:
some_string = “100,101,102,103,104,105”

Now there is a text_area given. It content should be the String
“some_string”. The ouput should look like this here:

100,
101,
102,
103,
104,
105

So after each “comma” new line.

My idea was to convert the String to an Array and print each element of
the Array. But it did not work. Here is what it is looking like:

<%= f.text_area :number, :value => s.some_string.nil? “” :
s.some_string.split(’,’).each {|number| puts “#{number},” } %>

It will print this here:

[“100”,“101”,“102”,“103”,“104”,“105”] which is not the result that i was
looking for. (mentioned above)

Any ideas?

2

On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 5:19 AM, Quake L. [email protected]
wrote:

My idea was to convert the String to an Array and print each element of
the Array. But it did not work. Here is what it is looking like:

<%= f.text_area :number, :value => s.some_string.nil? “” :
s.some_string.split(‘,’).each {|number| puts “#{number},” } %>

Your first problem is using puts in a view; puts writes to stdout -
you want the values rendered in the web page.

Second problem is that a newline is just a whitespace character in
HTML; you probably want something like

s.some_string.split(‘,’).join(“,
”).html_safe

HTH,

Hassan S. ------------------------ [email protected]

twitter: @hassan
Consulting Availability : Silicon Valley or remote

3

Just curious… What are your plans for this unusual use of a text_area?
Planning on a multiple select, perhaps? Will the display be read-only?
Liz

On Wednesday, August 19, 2015 at 8:21:01 AM UTC-4, Ruby-Forum.com User

4

On Aug 19, 2015, at 8:19 AM, Quake L. [email protected] wrote:

the Array. But it did not work. Here is what it is looking like:

<%= f.text_area :number, :value => s.some_string.nil? “” :
s.some_string.split(‘,’).each {|number| puts “#{number},” } %>

It will print this here:

[“100”,“101”,“102”,“103”,“104”,“105”] which is not the result that i was
looking for. (mentioned above)

As Hassan said, puts is not going to get it for you here. But a newline
will work as a line-break inside the content of a textarea. If you store
the string containing the newlines, and you show it inside a textarea,
it will preserve the newlines. You won’t need to do anything else to get
it to work. Set the value as containing the newlines in the controller,
and just display that default value in the view inside your textarea. If
you then want to show these values in an HTML context with the newline
characters replaced with break tags, then the easiest way to do that is
to simply run it through simple_format in your view.

So in your controller, in the edit method, you might set this up:

@foo.number = @something.some_string || (100…105).to_a.join(“,\n”)

Then in your edit view, you could use

form_for @foo do |f|
…
f.text_area( :number )

…

If you have set up that value on the object of the form, then the text
area will just populate with what you gave it.

On a show template, you just use:

simple_format @number

and you will get

101,

102,

103,

etc.

Walter

5

Hassan S. wrote in post #1177877:

On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 5:19 AM, Quake L. [email protected]
wrote:

My idea was to convert the String to an Array and print each element of
the Array. But it did not work. Here is what it is looking like:

<%= f.text_area :number, :value => s.some_string.nil? “” :
s.some_string.split(‘,’).each {|number| puts “#{number},” } %>

Your first problem is using puts in a view; puts writes to stdout -
you want the values rendered in the web page.

Second problem is that a newline is just a whitespace character in
HTML; you probably want something like

s.some_string.split(‘,’).join(“,
”).html_safe

HTH,

Hassan S. ------------------------ [email protected]
Hassan Schroeder | about.me
twitter: @hassan
Consulting Availability : Silicon Valley or remote

Sorry that I am answering that late. But this is exactly that what I was
looking for (one month ago :P). I forgot about this topic here, must be
because I found a solution by myself. But thanks aynway! :wink:

6

On Sat, Aug 22, 2015 at 8:25 AM, Walter Lee D. [email protected]
wrote:

As Hassan said, puts is not going to get it for you here. But a newline will
work as a line-break inside the content of a textarea. If you store the string
containing the newlines, and you show it inside a textarea, it will preserve the
newlines.

Gah, yes, my bad. Walter is correct - newlines are rendered as is
within the textarea. (I was thinking about outputting the result.)

I should know because I’ve used this before, i.e. to allow a user to
input a newline-separated set of response strings for a poll creation
tool. And it works fine :slight_smile:

–
Hassan S. ------------------------ [email protected]

twitter: @hassan
Consulting Availability : Silicon Valley or remote