Contingent Select Boxes - 2 Q's

I have a form with contingent select boxes (the state is contingent on
the country selected, so when the country selected changes, the state
changes – I am using the Carmen plugin for getting my state names and
country names together, but not the functionality I am interested in
achieving).

Everything works fine except I cannot figure out how to amend my code
such that:
A. When the form is first rendered the state select box is empty (even
if there is a country showing, and the user (what I am calling an
“Associate” in terms of the model) HAS a state selected in his model. -
and-
B.If I have, say, a state selected, I change the country, don’t select
a state for that country, then go back and select the original country
(for which I have a state selected) it still doesn’t display the
selected state – just the list of states, unselected, in the state
select box (I believe the solution to #1, above, should solve this
too).

Ive scoured the net for examples of related matters, but cannot find
one similar to this. I am certain the solution must be little more
than a few lines of code which I am entirely oblivious to. Can someone
help me here? -JannaB

Here is the code I am using:

First, I have a model called Associates (for simplicity in
demonstration here, the only two members of Associates are state and
country, both Strings), and the /views/associates/_form.html.erb, as
follows:

<% form_for @associate do |f| %>
<%= f.error_messages %>

<%= f.label :city %>
<%= f.text_field :city %>

<%= f.label :state %>
<%= render :partial => 'get_states' %>

<%= f.label :country %>
<%= f.country_select :country, Carmen.default_country, {}, { :onChange => remote_function( :url => { :action => '_get_states' }, :update => "state", :with => "'country=' +value") } %>

<%= f.submit "Submit" %>

<% end %>

"
Note that I have a partial that gets called, /views/associates/
_get_states.html.erb:

<% if @states !=nil %>
<% for state in @states %>

<%= state[0] %> <% end %> <% end %>

Then, in my AssociatesController, I put in the method _get_states:

def get_states
#essentially, this requires the 2 letter code for the country
selected, so if ‘united_kingdom’ is selected
#it converts to UK and gets its “states”. It also handles the default,
which is already specified properly
q = params[:country]
if(q!=Carmen.default_country)
q1 = q.gsub!("
", " ")
if(q1!=q && q1!=nil)
q = q1.titleize
else
q.capitalize!
end
q = Carmen::country_code(q)
end
@states = Carmen::states(q)
end

On May 27, 12:37 pm, JannaB [email protected] wrote:

“Associate” in terms of the model) HAS a state selected in his model. -
and-

A select box has a selected value if one of its option tags has
selected=“selected”. You never do this to you option tags and so your
select box will never show the selected value. Why not use one of the
rails helpers for generating option tags ?

Fred

Fred,

What do you mean “use one of the rails helpers for generating option
tags?” Where can I see an example of this? Thanks, Janna B

On May 27, 8:08 am, Frederick C. [email protected]

Yes, I understand – and am looking at it – Im just not sure where to
cobble it in (in what files, amending what files) given what I have
working here. -JannaB

On 27/05/2009, at 10:12 PM, JannaB wrote:

Fred,

What do you mean “use one of the rails helpers for generating option
tags?” Where can I see an example of this? Thanks, Janna B

api.rubyonrails.org has examples.

options_for_select (ActionView::Helpers::FormOptionsHelper)

options_from_collection_for_select
(ActionView::Helpers::FormOptionsHelper)

Julian.


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On 27/05/2009, at 10:31 PM, JannaB wrote:

Yes, I understand – and am looking at it – Im just not sure where to
cobble it in (in what files, amending what files) given what I have
working here. -JannaB

You know what I really like to do? put a debugger into your view, and
then mess with the method in the console… it’s good. Go do it now…
(just don’t forget to take out the debugger later)

Just now I wacked a <% debugger %> into the layout of one of my apps,
and loaded up mongrel, then hit the root url…

bam… up pops a console, and you’re “in” a view… you can mess with
it… you get stack traces if you write the wrong thing, but it’s good
all the same…

Phatty:sensei julian$ mongrel_rails start -p 3003
** Starting Mongrel listening at 0.0.0.0:3003
** Starting Rails with development environment…
** Rails loaded.
** Loading any Rails specific GemPlugins
** Signals ready. TERM => stop. USR2 => restart. INT => stop (no
restart).
** Rails signals registered. HUP => reload (without restart). It
might not work well.
** Mongrel 1.1.5 available at 0.0.0.0:3003
** Use CTRL-C to stop.

---- HERE IS WHERE I LOADED THE ROOT OF MY APP IN A BROWSER: localhost:
3003 –

/Users/julian/code/rails/sensei/app/views/layouts/application.html.erb:
15
<% debugger %>
(rdb:1) irb

options_for_select(“hi”)
=> “<option value="hi">hi”
options_for_select([1])
=> “<option value="1">1”
options_for_select([1,2])
=> “<option value="1">1\n<option value="2">2”
options_for_select([1,2,3])
=> “<option value="1">1\n<option value="2">2
\n<option value="3">3”
options_for_select([[1,2],[3,4]])
=> “<option value="2">1\n<option value="4">3”
options_for_select([[:hello,2],[:yes,4]])
=> “<option value="2">hello\n<option value="4">yes</
option>”
options_for_select
ArgumentError: wrong number of arguments (0 for 1)
from (irb):2:in options_for_select' from (irb):2:in send’
from /Users/julian/code/rails/sensei/app/views/layouts/
application.html.erb:15:in send' from /Users/julian/code/rails/sensei/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/ action_view/renderable.rb:34:in render’
from /Users/julian/code/rails/sensei/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/
action_view/base.rb:301:in with_template' from /Users/julian/code/rails/sensei/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/ action_view/renderable.rb:30:in render’
from /Users/julian/code/rails/sensei/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/
action_view/template.rb:194:in render_template' from /Users/julian/code/rails/sensei/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/ action_view/base.rb:260:in render’
from /Users/julian/code/rails/sensei/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/
action_view/base.rb:347:in _render_with_layout' from /Users/julian/code/rails/sensei/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/ action_view/base.rb:257:in render’
from /Users/julian/code/rails/sensei/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/
action_controller/base.rb:1241:in render_for_file' from /Users/julian/code/rails/sensei/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/ action_controller/base.rb:937:in render_without_benchmark’
from /Users/julian/code/rails/sensei/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/
action_controller/benchmarking.rb:51:in render' from /Users/julian/code/rails/sensei/vendor/rails/activesupport/lib/ active_support/core_ext/benchmark.rb:17:in ms’
from /Users/julian/code/rails/sensei/vendor/rails/activesupport/lib/
active_support/core_ext/benchmark.rb:10:in realtime' from /Users/julian/code/rails/sensei/vendor/rails/activesupport/lib/ active_support/core_ext/benchmark.rb:17:in ms’
… 46 levels…
from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/…/lib/mongrel.rb:
158:in process_client' from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/../lib/mongrel.rb: 285:in run’
from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/…/lib/mongrel.rb:
285:in initialize' from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/../lib/mongrel.rb: 285:in new’
from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/…/lib/mongrel.rb:
285:in run' from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/../lib/mongrel.rb: 268:in initialize’
from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/…/lib/mongrel.rb:
268:in new' from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/../lib/mongrel.rb: 268:in run’
from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/…/lib/mongrel/
configurator.rb:282:in run' from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/../lib/mongrel/ configurator.rb:281:in each’
from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/…/lib/mongrel/
configurator.rb:281:in run' from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/mongrel_rails: 128:in run’
from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/…/lib/mongrel/
command.rb:212:in run' from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/mongrel_rails:281 from /usr/bin/mongrel_rails:19:in load’
from /usr/bin/mongrel_rails:19
exit
/Users/julian/code/rails/sensei/app/views/layouts/application.html.erb:
15
<% debugger %>
(rdb:1) cont


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Julian - <% debugger %> will only work if you are running in irb, yes?
I am running in Mongrel and I get nothing. -Janna B

On 27/05/2009, at 11:06 PM, JannaB wrote:

where to

bam… up pops a console, and you’re “in” a view… you can mess with
it… you get stack traces if you write the wrong thing, but it’s
good
all the same…

No debugger will work in mongrel if you have required the debugger in
your environments/development.rb file

require “ruby-debug”

Julian.


Learn: http://sensei.zenunit.com/
Last updated 20-May-09 (Rails, Basic Unix)
Blog: http://random8.zenunit.com/
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Or you can start your dev server with the --debugger option

2009/5/27, Julian L. [email protected]:

(just don’t forget to take out the debugger later)
No debugger will work in mongrel if you have required the debugger in
Twitter: http://twitter.com/random8r
might not work well.
<% debugger %>

options_for_select([[1,2],[3,4]])
from /Users/julian/code/rails/sensei/vendor/rails/
action_view/template.rb:194:in render_template' actionpack/lib/ from /Users/julian/code/rails/sensei/vendor/rails/ mongrel.rb: from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/../lib/ configurator.rb:282:in run’
mongrel/
(rdb:1) cont


Von meinen Mobilgerät aus gesendet

My question then boils down to this – how do I access the string
value of Associate.state from within my partial /views/associates/
_get_states,html.erb so as to perform the conditional on line 4,
below? -Janna B (state[0] might == “NY” but the right side of the ==
needs to be Associate.state. how do I get at that from in here?

<% if @states !=nil %>
<% for state in @states %>
<option value="<%= state[1] %>"
<% if state[0]==state %>
selected=“selected”
<% end %>
>
<%= state[0] %>
<% end %>
<% end %>