Uknown attributes error nested attributes

Question

I keep getting an unknown attributes error, though I have tried some of the similar answers to this question here. I am trying to update council and property attributes into a join table council history using a nested form, when I try to load the view form I get this error please advice what you think I might be doing wrong am new to rails and programming.

Error

Started PUT "/properties/6/build/council" for 127.0.0.1 at 2013-08-19 17:35:45 +0100
Processing by Properties::BuildController#update as HTML
  Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓",     "authenticity_token"=>"wBWQaxtBioqzGLkhUrstqS+cFD/xvEutXnJ0jWNtSa0=", "property"=>   {"council_history_attributes"=>{"council_id"=>""}}, "commit"=>"Create Council history",  "property_id"=>"6", "id"=>"council"}
  Property Load (0.3ms)  SELECT "properties".* FROM "properties" WHERE "properties"."id" =  ? LIMIT 1  [["id", "6"]]
   (0.1ms)  begin transaction
   (0.1ms)  rollback transaction
Completed 500 Internal Server Error in 6ms

ActiveRecord::UnknownAttributeError - unknown attribute: council_history_attributes:
  activerecord (3.2.13) lib/active_record/attribute_assignment.rb:88:in `block in  assign_attributes'
  activerecord (3.2.13) lib/active_record/attribute_assignment.rb:78:in `assign_attributes'
  activerecord (3.2.13) lib/active_record/persistence.rb:216:in `block in update_attributes'
  activerecord (3.2.13) lib/active_record/transactions.rb:313:in `block in with_transaction_returning_status'
  activerecord (3.2.13) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/database_statements.rb:192:in `transaction'
  activerecord (3.2.13) lib/active_record/transactions.rb:208:in `transaction'
  activerecord (3.2.13) lib/active_record/transactions.rb:311:in `with_transaction_returning_status'
  activerecord (3.2.13) lib/active_record/persistence.rb:215:in `update_attributes'
  app/controllers/properties/build_controller.rb:24:in `update'

Property Model

class Property < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible  :name, :address_attributes, :tenants_attributes, :meter_attributes, :council_history, :council_history_attributes, :property_id, :council_id, :status
  belongs_to :user 

  has_one :council_history

  has_one :council, through: :council_history, :foreign_key => :council_id
  accepts_nested_attributes_for :council

end

Council Model

class Council < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :CouncilEmail, :name, :CouncilTel

  has_many   :council_history

  has_many   :properties, :through => :council_history, :foreign_key => :property_id
end

Council History Model -- Join Table

class CouncilHistory < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :council_id, :property_id, :vacant 

  belongs_to :council

  belongs_to :property

end

*View *

<%= simple_form_for @property, :url => url_for(:action => 'update', :controller =>    'properties/build'), :method => 'put' do |f| %>
  <%= f.simple_fields_for :council do |builder| %>
      <%= builder.input :council_id, :collection => Council.all  %>
      <%= builder.submit %>
    <% end %>
<% end %>

Property/build Controller

class Properties::BuildController < ApplicationController
  include Wicked::Wizard

   steps :tenant, :meter, :council, :confirmed 

  def show
    @property = Property.find(params[:property_id])
    @tenants = @property.tenants.new(params[:tenant_id])
    @meter = @property.build_meter
    @council = @property.build_council
    @council_history = @property.council_history.build
    render_wizard
  end

  def edit
    @property = Property.find(params[:property_id])
  end


  def update
    @property = Property.find(params[:property_id])
    params[:property][:status] = step.to_s
    params[:property][:status] = 'active' if step == steps.last
    @property.update_attributes(params[:property])
    render_wizard @property
  end

Answer 1

Thanks for the answer Muntasim. I can't comment directly on the accepted answer but, wanted to update how to do this now that attr_accessible is no longer in Rails (last version v2.3.8) with the introduction of strong parameters in Rails 4+.

Strong parameters in controllers,

def person_params
  params.permit(:name, {:emails => []}, :friends => [ :name, { :family => [ :name ], :hobbies => [] }])
end

Strong parameters can be used outside of controllers (this is the issue that I was running into that led me here),

raw_parameters = { :email => "john@example.com", :name => "John", :admin => true }
parameters = ActionController::Parameters.new(raw_parameters)
user = User.create(parameters.permit(:name, :email))

Alternatively if you want to use attr_accessible, you still can, see this answer.

If you want to use attr_accessible, you need to add protected_attributes to your Gemfile. Otherwise, you will be faced with a RuntimeError.

Answer 2

in property.rb

add accepts_nested_attributes_for :council_history

class Property < ActiveRecord::Base
 attr_accessible  :name, :address_attributes, :tenants_attributes, :meter_attributes,         :council_history, :council_history_attributes, :property_id, :council_id, :status
 belongs_to :user 

 has_one :council_history

  has_one :council, through: :council_history, :foreign_key => :council_id
  accepts_nested_attributes_for :council
  
  accepts_nested_attributes_for :council_history #add this line

 end