Get values of select tags without a form from the view to the controller in rails

Question

I have a view that contains a series of select tags. I wanted to get the values of the selected values on all the select tags from the view to my controller.

Please see code below:

<% dialog_tag :id => "imonggo_xero_dialog" do %>
<h3><%= @title %></h3>
<h5>Accounts Mapping</h5>
<hr>
<center>
<table id="listing">
    <tr>
        <th>Imonggo</th>
        <th>Xero Account</th>
    </tr>
    <tr class="<%= cycle "odd", "even" %>">
        <td>Total Sales</td>
        <td><%= select_tag 'sales', options_for_select(@revenues) %></td>
    </t>
    <tr class="<%= cycle "odd", "even" %>">
        <td>Cash</td>
        <td><%= select_tag :cash, options_for_select(@current_accounts)%></td>
    </t>
    <tr class="<%= cycle "odd", "even" %>">
        <td>Credit Card / EFTPOS</td>
        <td><%= select_tag :ccard, options_for_select(@current_accounts)%</td>
</table>
</center>

<br>

<p class="indent_top">          
    <%= button_to 'Save', "/#{@locale}/save_settings"%> 
</p>

<% end %>

I want that after clicking the "Save" button, I will pass as parameters the values of the selected items on all the select tags in my view.

Answer 1

When you submit your form, the selected values in every select tag inside your form is passed in the form of a params array to the controller to be manipulated like this:

params[:sales]
params[:cash]
params[:ccard]

Answer 2

The key to your problem is properly specifying the controller and action that handles your data in the form_tag. The following is a code sample that passes two values to a controller via the params hash.

I think that some problems you might have encountered will be down to your use of a button_to tag. Note that I am using a submit_tag to handle the form.

<%= form_tag "/my_controller/my_method" do %>
    <div>
        <%= label_tag "Foo" %>
    </div>
    <div>
        <%= select_tag("foo", options_for_select(@foos_list, :selected => @selected_foo)) %>
    </div>

    <div>
        <%= label_tag "Bar" %>
    </div>
    <div>
        <%= select_tag("bar", options_for_select(@bars_list, :selected => @selected_bar)) %>
    </div>

<div>
    <%= submit_tag "Save", :name => 'save' %>
    <%= submit_tag "Defaults", :name => 'defaults' %>
</div>

<% end %>

----- my_controller -----

    ...

      def my_method

        # if statement to distinguish between a save attempt and
        # resetting the form to default values

        if params[:save]
          puts params[:foo]
          puts params[:bar]
        end
      end
    ...