Rails 500 Server Error, Ajax Request to form_for partial

Question

I am creating a blog and I am trying to create a dashboard where the user can select new in the side menu and it renders the create new article form on the dashboard page. I am trying to accomplish this using an ajax request to render the form. However when I have form_for Article.new the form renders but when I submit nothing happens. I realized my mistake and tried form_for Article but now I am getting a 500 Server error. I tried also creating @article = Article.new in my Dashboard Controller create_new_article action and passing form_for @article but I am still getting the 500 error. Can someone please help me debug why this is happening? I keep getting deprication warnings stating "Deprecation] Synchronous XMLHttpRequest on the main thread is deprecated because of its detrimental effects to the end user's experience." I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it though. Thanks !

• dashboard.html.erb

<div class="row fill-screen dashboard">
 <div class="column-1">
    <%= render 'side_menu' %>
  </div>

  <div class="column-10">
    <div id="content"></div>
  </div>


  <div class="column-1">
  </div>

</div>

1. dashboard_controller.rb

class DashboardController < ApplicationController
  def home
  end

  private
  def render_partial
    respond_to do |format|
      format.html {}
      format.js
    end
  end

  def show_all_articles
    render_partial
  end

  def create_new_article
    render_partial
  end
end

2. _side_menu.html.erb

<div class="side-menu">
  <div>
    <h2>Articles</h2>
    <%= link_to "Show", show_all_articles_path, remote: true %>
    <%= link_to "New", create_new_article_path, remote: true %>
  </div>
</div>

3. create_new_article.js.erb

$('#content').html("<%= escape_javascript(render :partial => 'create_new_article')%>");

4. _create_new_article.html.erb

<%= tinymce_assets %>
<form>
  <%= form_for Article do |f| %>

    <%= f.label :title, 'Title' %>
    <%= f.text_field :title %>

    <%= f.label :thumbnail, 'Thumbnail URL'%>
    <%= f.text_field :thumbnail%>

    <%= f.label :description, 'Description' %>
    <%= f.text_field :description %>

    <%= f.label :content, 'Content' %>
    <%= f.text_area :content, :class => 'tinymce'%>


    <%= f.submit %>
  <% end %>
</form>
<%= tinymce %>

5. articles_controller.rb

class ArticlesController < ApplicationController
  skip_before_action :admin, except: [:show]

  def new
    @article = Article.new
  end

  def create
    @article = Article.new(article_params)
    if @article.save
      flash[:notice] = "Article was successfully created"
      redirect_to article_path(@article)
    else
      render dashboard_path
    end
  end

  def index
    @articles = Article.all
  end

  private
  def article_params
    params.require(:article).permit(:title, :description)
  end

  def show
    @article = Article.find(params[:id])
  end

  def edit
    @article = Article.find(params[:id])
  end

  def update
    @article = Article.find(params[:id])
    if @article.update(article_params)
      flash[:notice] = "Article was updated"
      redirect_to article_path(@article)
    else
      flash[:notice] = "Article was not updated"
      render 'edit'
    end
  end

• routes.rb

  #Articles
  resources :articles
  
  #Dashboard
  get 'dashboard', to: 'dashboard#home', as: 'dashboard'
  get 'show_all_articles', to: 'dashboard#show_all_articles'
  get 'create_new_article', to: 'dashboard#create_new_article'

• rails s log

ActionView::Template::Error (undefined method `to_key' for #<Class:0x00007f897f5ddaf8>
Did you mean?  to_query):
    1: <%= tinymce_assets %>
    2: <form>
    3:   <%= form_for Article do |f| %>
    4: 
    5:     <%= f.label :title, 'Title' %>
    6:     <%= f.text_field :title %>

Answer 1

I found a fix but I am not entirely sure I understand why its working now as I am new to rails.

• First I tried defining my model in an instance variable and using that instance variable in the form but it was returning null

#controller
def create_new_article
@article = Article.new
end

#view
<%= form_with model: @article do |f| %>

• Then I tried simply calling Article model directly in the form but this was saying invalid method to_key for Article

#view
<%= form_with model: Article do |f| %>

• Finally I tried calling Article.new directly in the form. This wasn't causing a runtime error but when I click submit in the form nothing was happening. I realized this was because I didn't have a post request properly routed in my routes.rb

#view
<%= form_with model: Article.new do |f| %>

#routes
post 'create_new_article', to: 'articles#create'

This finally allowed me to create an Articles form on my dashboard controller using an ajax request. Still as I am new to rails I am not sure if this is the best solution to do so. Thanks !