HTML shortcuts

Rails
1

I am just learning ruby on rails, i have known HTML for a few years now
and i dont really see how the HTML control shortcuts in Erb are
shortcuts they just seem to be a different way of creating an HTML
control not a shortcut.

I mean look at these two form tags does the first one seem like a
shortcut? Maybe that is just the opinion of the author of the book i am
reading i dont know, am i missing something? Thanks

<%= start_form_tag ({:action => “at”}, {:method => “post”}) %>
<%= end_form_tag %>

<form action = "/look/at" method = "post"
2

Corey,

That is the older deprecated way. The new way is:

<% form_tag :action => ‘create’ do %>
…
<% end %>

Hope this helps.

–
Zack C.
http://depixelate.com

3

Zack C. wrote:

Corey,

That is the older deprecated way. The new way is:

<% form_tag :action => ‘create’ do %>
…
<% end %>

Hope this helps.

–
Zack C.
http://depixelate.com

Ok thanks, i still dont see how that new way is a shortcut though, why
not just use the normal HTML way? does the form_tag above do something
different than the normal HTML tag? It just seems like a way of
using ruby to create a form instead of HTML what is the practical
difference?

thanks

4

Corey K. wrote:

Zack C. wrote:

Corey,

That is the older deprecated way. The new way is:

<% form_tag :action => ‘create’ do %>
…
<% end %>

Hope this helps.

–
Zack C.
http://depixelate.com

Ok thanks, i still dont see how that new way is a shortcut though, why
not just use the normal HTML way? does the form_tag above do something
different than the normal HTML tag?

Yes. It calculates the URL for the form from the controller and action,
which is a big help since Rails doesn’t use direct URLs much. In
addition, if you use form_for, it also creates a FormBuilder object so
you can use Rails’ helpers for form elements, which automatically pick
up values from the object. .

It just seems like a way of
using ruby to create a form instead of HTML

It is.

what is the practical
difference?

The URL calculation is a big difference.

thanks

Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]

5

On Dec 28, 4:31 pm, Marnen Laibow-Koser [email protected] wrote:

Yes. It calculates the URL for the form from the controller and action,
which is a big help since Rails doesn’t use direct URLs much. In
addition, if you use form_for, it also creates a FormBuilder object so
you can use Rails’ helpers for form elements, which automatically pick
up values from the object. .

And with form_for rails works out for you whether the form’s action
should be the url for saving or updating the form etc.

It’s true that

<%= start_form_tag ({:action => “at”}, {:method => “post”}) %>
<%= end_form_tag %>

is not very different from

<form action = "/look/at" method = "post"

but

<% form_for @person do |f| %>
<%= f.label :name %>: <%= f.text_field :name%>
<% end %>

is less cumbersome than the alternative.

Fred

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6

Corey K. wrote:

Zack C. wrote:

Corey,

That is the older deprecated way. The new way is:

<% form_tag :action => ‘create’ do %>
…
<% end %>

Hope this helps.

–
Zack C.
http://depixelate.com

Ok thanks, i still dont see how that new way is a shortcut though, why
not just use the normal HTML way? does the form_tag above do something
different than the normal HTML tag? It just seems like a way of
using ruby to create a form instead of HTML what is the practical
difference?

thanks

Dear Zack and Corey,

I am in the same boat as Corey. Don’t see much of a shorcut but
definitely see a whole lot of confusion. The documentation that i have
read so far does not seem to be make it better. In fact, I tried running
this code with Rails on Ruby 1.8.6-p383 and got eyeful of complains from
the firefox and IE. This after using the old deprecated way and the new
way. Is there any documentation that explains all this very well?

Appreciate any help here. Thank you

Muru