Module | ActionView::Helpers::ActiveRecordHelper |
In: |
lib/action_view/helpers/active_record_helper.rb
|
The Active Record Helper makes it easier to create forms for records kept in instance variables. The most far-reaching is the form method that creates a complete form for all the basic content types of the record (not associations or aggregations, though). This is a great of making the record quickly available for editing, but likely to prove lackluster for a complicated real-world form. In that case, it’s better to use the input method and the specialized form methods in classes/ActionView/Helpers/FormHelper.html
Returns a string containing the error message attached to the method on the object, if one exists. This error message is wrapped in a DIV tag, which can be specialized to include both a prepend_text and append_text to properly introduce the error and a css_class to style it accordingly. Examples (post has an error message "can’t be empty" on the title attribute):
<%= error_message_on "post", "title" %> => <div class="formError">can't be empty</div> <%= error_message_on "post", "title", "Title simply ", " (or it won't work)", "inputError" %> => <div class="inputError">Title simply can't be empty (or it won't work)</div>
Returns a string with a div containing all the error messages for the object located as an instance variable by the name of object_name. This div can be tailored by the following options:
NOTE: This is a pre-packaged presentation of the errors with embedded strings and a certain HTML structure. If what you need is significantly different from the default presentation, it makes plenty of sense to access the object.errors instance yourself and set it up. View the source of this method to see how easy it is.
Returns an entire form with input tags and everything for a specified Active Record object. Example (post is a new record that has a title using VARCHAR and a body using TEXT):
form("post") => <form action='/post/create' method='post'> <p> <label for="post_title">Title</label><br /> <input id="post_title" name="post[title]" size="30" type="text" value="Hello World" /> </p> <p> <label for="post_body">Body</label><br /> <textarea cols="40" id="post_body" name="post[body]" rows="20"> Back to the hill and over it again! </textarea> </p> <input type='submit' value='Create' /> </form>
It’s possible to specialize the form builder by using a different action name and by supplying another block renderer. Example (entry is a new record that has a message attribute using VARCHAR):
form("entry", :action => "sign", :input_block => Proc.new { |record, column| "#{column.human_name}: #{input(record, column.name)}<br />" }) => <form action='/post/sign' method='post'> Message: <input id="post_title" name="post[title]" size="30" type="text" value="Hello World" /><br /> <input type='submit' value='Sign' /> </form>
It’s also possible to add additional content to the form by giving it a block, such as:
form("entry", :action => "sign") do |form| form << content_tag("b", "Department") form << collection_select("department", "id", @departments, "id", "name") end