# Submitting fields in a table row

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/submitting-fields-in-a-table-row/144367>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [July 29, 2008, 4:14am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/submitting-fields-in-a-table-row/144367 "2008-07-29T04:14:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![surge](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@surge](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/surge)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2008, 4:14am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/submitting-fields-in-a-table-row/144367/1 "2008-07-29T04:14:04Z")

</div>

Hello,

I have a table with each row containing some data and the last column  
being a button called “Edit”.

You click “Edit” and the whole row becomes editable (through AJAX and  
rjs) with form elements replacing each previously uneditable element  
and the last column becoming a button saying “Update”.

The pressing of the button and the row “coming alive” with form fields  
works fine but how do I submit all those fields after I press  
“Update”?

The update button is in its own cell with form\_remote\_tag around it,  
but all the other elements are outside the form. I guess I could run  
some javascript function to get the value of each element, serialize  
the result and use the :with key, but is there a better, more standard  
way?

Suggestions are welcome!

Thanks,  
Surge

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![surge](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@surge](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/surge)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2008, 8:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/submitting-fields-in-a-table-row/144367/2 "2008-07-30T08:47:19Z")

</div>

The way I have done this sort of thing is to put the form\_remote  
around the whole table.

Then each row has an edit link which does an ajax call to open  
'\_row\_active.rhtml

I keep track of the open row id in the session and clear it on  
update. I can then check the session before allowing a new row to be  
opened. If one is already open, I send a polite response to say  
please save the current row first.

Certainly firefox does not mind this - I havnt tried it with other  
browsers.

In other simpler cases, I have replaced the row with a single td cell,  
spanning the full width and then build the whole form inside the  
single cell.

Tonypm

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![surge](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@surge](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/surge)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2008, 4:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/submitting-fields-in-a-table-row/144367/3 "2008-07-30T16:06:23Z")

</div>

Thanks for the response. I like your approach. But how do you pass the  
id of the element represented in a row in the AJAX call?  
form\_tag\_remote hardcodes the controller/action at the time the page  
is generated. So it would have something like

onSubmit=“new Ajax.Request(‘PATH\_TO\_CONTROLLER\_ACTION’,  
{asynchronous:true, evalScripts:true,  
parameters:Form.serialize(this)});return false;”

and the PATH\_TO\_CONTROLLER\_ACTION part is the problem because it has  
the id of the object we’re working with. So how did you work around  
that problem?

What I ended up doing is having a button in each row that links to a  
javascript function, which collects all active elements (even though  
they are not inside any form) and then makes the ajax call. The only  
parameter for the function is the id of the object. Here’s the  
function:

```
function ajax_update(id) {
  var selects = $A($$('select'));
  var inputs = $A($$('input'));
  var allControls = selects.concat(inputs);
  var hash = $H();

  allControls.each(
    function(control) {
      hash.set(control.name, $F(control))
    }
  )

  hash.set('authenticity_token', '<%= form_authenticity_token

```

%\>’);

```
  new Ajax.Request('/tickets/' + id,
    {
        asynchronous:true,
        method:'put',
        parameters:hash.toQueryString()
    }
  )
}

```

Thanks for your reply!