Multiple Nested Form

Question

I have implemented the complex nested form based on Ryan Bates Screen cast.

I'm truing to have 2 nested forms in the same form

one is for Cutomer's contact and the other for customer's appointments

for that I have

patient model

class Patient < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :contacts, :dependent => :destroy
  accepts_nested_attributes_for :contacts, :reject_if => lambda { |a| a[:content].blank? }, :allow_destroy => true

  has_many :appointments, :dependent => :destroy
  accepts_nested_attributes_for :appointments, :reject_if => lambda { |a| a[:content].blank? }, :allow_destroy => true
end

contact model

class Contact < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :patient
end

Appointment model

class Appointment < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :patient
end

appointment_fields partial form

<div class="fields">
      Appointment: <%= f.datetime_select :appointment_date %>
        <%= link_to_remove_fields "remove", f%><br />
</div>

contact_fields partial form

<div class="fields">
      Contact: <%= f.text_field :contact_type %>
      <%= f.text_field :content %>
        <%= link_to_remove_fields "remove", f%><br />
</div>

patient _form partial

Edited to show only the formfields

    <%= f.fields_for :contacts do |builder| %>
        <%= render "contact_fields", :f => builder %>
    <% end %>

    <p><%= link_to_add_fields "Add More Contact", f, :contacts %></p>

    <%= f.fields_for :appointments do |builder| %>
        <%= render "appointment_fields", :f => builder %>
    <% end %>

    <p><%= link_to_add_fields "Add Appointment", f, :appointments %></p>

Application_helper

module ApplicationHelper
  def link_to_remove_fields(name, f)
    f.hidden_field(:_destroy) + link_to_function(name, "remove_fields(this)")
  end

  def link_to_add_fields(name, f, association)
    new_object = f.object.class.reflect_on_association(association).klass.new
    fields = f.fields_for(association, new_object, :child_index => "new_#{association}") do |builder|
      render(association.to_s.singularize + "_fields", :f => builder)
    end
    link_to_function(name, "add_fields(this, '#{association}', '#{escape_javascript(fields)}')")
      end

end

Application.js

function remove_fields(link) {  
    $(link).prev("input[type=hidden]").val("1");  
    $(link).closest(".fields").hide();  
}  

function add_fields(link, association, content) {  
    var new_id = new Date().getTime();  
    var regexp = new RegExp("new_" + association, "g");  
    $(link).parent().before(content.replace(regexp, new_id));  
}

I'm using rails 3.0.3 and ruby 1.9.2

The contac does work but the appointment does not. No error messages just does not run the include statement

here is the output when I enter the data in the form and enter submit

Started POST "/patients" for 127.0.0.1 at 2011-09-17 16:59:46 -0700
  Processing by PatientsController#create as HTML
  Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", "authenticity_token"=>"AEhUmtE5vIMrjHYWvGWRzlDc2hKrN0nc9gXPCSlIz50=", "patient"=>{"first_name"=>"test", "middle"=>"", "last_name"=>"", "dob(1i)"=>"2011", "dob(2i)"=>"9", "dob(3i)"=>"17", "address1"=>"", "address2"=>"", "city"=>"", "state"=>"", "country"=>"", "insurance_name"=>"", "contacts_attributes"=>{"0"=>{"contact_type"=>"cell", "content"=>"999-999-9999", "_destroy"=>"false"}, "1"=>{"contact_type"=>"", "content"=>"", "_destroy"=>"false"}}, "appointments_attributes"=>{"0"=>{"appointment_date(1i)"=>"2011", "appointment_date(2i)"=>"9", "appointment_date(3i)"=>"17", "appointment_date(4i)"=>"23", "appointment_date(5i)"=>"59", "_destroy"=>"false"}}, "notes"=>""}, "commit"=>"Create Patient"}
  SQL (0.9ms)  BEGIN
  SQL (1.2ms)  describe `patients`
  AREL (1.5ms)  INSERT INTO `patients` (`first_name`, `middle`, `last_name`, `dob`, `address1`, `address2`, `city`, `state`, `country`, `notes`, `insured`, `insurance_name`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES ('test', '', '', '2011-09-17 00:00:00', '', '', '', '', '', '', NULL, '', '2011-09-17 23:59:46', '2011-09-17 23:59:46')
  SQL (3.2ms)  describe `contacts`
  AREL (0.3ms)  INSERT INTO `contacts` (`patient_id`, `contact_type`, `content`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES (8, 'cell', '999-999-9999', '2011-09-17 23:59:46', '2011-09-17 23:59:46')
  SQL (0.4ms)  COMMIT
Redirected to http://localhost:3000/patients/8
Completed 302 Found in 74ms

If I do in the code below the console mode

@patients = Patient.find_by_id(1)
@patients.appointment

it returns [] which shows the relationship is right

Oh I tried to comment out contact but still was able to get it to work

Any ideas??

Answer 1

In your patient model, in the appointment's nested_attributes_for declaration, you have a reject_if, for an non existent "content" attribute.

The content attribute is not a parameter of an appointment, it's only a parameter of a contact. There for, when you send the attributes, and your patient model sees that the appointment has a blank content attribute, it rejects the nested attributes for the appointment.

To fix it, remove the reject_if clause from the appointement nested_attributes_for declaration

accepts_nested_attributes_for :appointments, :allow_destroy => true

Or change it, for an existing attribute. like the appointement_date.

Let me know if this was the problem.