Railscasts - Update through Checkboxes

#52

Jul 02, 2007

14 comments

Update through Checkboxes

See how to select multiple items using checkboxes and perform an action on the selected items in this episode.

Tags: views controllers forms

Download (27 MB, 10:02)

alternative download for iPod & Apple TV (14.6 MB, 10:02)

Resources

# routes.rb
map.resources :tasks, :collection => { :complete => :put }

# tasks_controller.rb
def complete
  Task.update_all(["completed_at=?", Time.now], :id => params[:task_ids])
end

<% form_tag complete_tasks_path, :method => :put do %>
  <ul>
  <% for task in @incomplete_tasks %>
    <li>
      <%= check_box_tag "task_ids[]", task.id %>
      <%= task.name %>
    </li>
  <% end %>
  </ul>
  <%= submit_tag "Mark as Complete" %>
<% end %>

< Previous Episode

Next Episode >

14 comments

1. chineseGuy Jul 02, 2007 at 00:05

let me see

Report as Spam

2. Leeky Jul 02, 2007 at 00:38

Another great railscast as usual. One thing that I'd like to know is if there's a way to make the checkboxes each have a different ID in the HTML code, and still have the form work?

I noticed in the example that every checkbox has the same ID, which is invalid, as ID's are meant to be unique within a XHTML document.

Report as Spam

3. Sintaxi Jul 02, 2007 at 04:26

Thanks again Ryan for you great work.

@Leeky - It is actually the 'name' of the field that is referenced (and not the id) for submission. It is common practice (as many rails helpers do) to call the id and name the same. Im sure you can used the name as described in this screencast and use the dom_id plugin (http://topfunky.net/svn/plugins/dom_id/) to give your forms unique ids. This would be helpful for validation and for giving this task ajaxy goodness.

Report as Spam

4. JackVandaL Jul 02, 2007 at 07:56

Great job Ryan. One thing your code snippet has "form_for" not "form_tag".

Report as Spam

5. Rob Jul 02, 2007 at 08:18

If we were to do this with multiple users, how can we first ensure that the task IDs belong to the current logged in user (in case someone edits the HTML and puts in a task ID that doesn't belong to them)?

Report as Spam

6. Paul Barry Jul 02, 2007 at 11:16

@Rob

current_user.tasks.update_all(["completed_at=?", Time.now], :id => params[:task_ids])
end

Report as Spam

7. JackVandaL Jul 02, 2007 at 12:40

Sorry two other things:
- submit_tag needs a closing %>
- it's ":collection" not ":collections"
:)

Report as Spam

8. Ryan Bates Jul 02, 2007 at 15:41

@JackVandaL, thanks, fixed. I gotta learn to copy and paste the code instead of retyping it. :/

Report as Spam

9. Manu Jul 03, 2007 at 10:47

Ryan,

Great episode. I have question concerning the controller. I see the pattern of always having a new -> create, edit -> update method.. But then I see some repeated code in the new and the create (like typically find the object by ID). Could use call the new method to do the setup of the default data and override them from the create method? Or is there a better way to refactor that?

Report as Spam

10. Mark Jan 18, 2008 at 05:23

This was great. Just wondering if there is a way to do this without using REST?

My app is not as clean as this one at this point and I am lost when it comes to getting the "collection" of data passed to the controller method.

Report as Spam

11. Frode Marton Meling Mar 12, 2008 at 02:44

I have a question. In this example the items disappear from the list when they are marked as complete.
What if you want to display the complete list all the time, but the check_box default value is based on the values from the tasks.

Report as Spam

12. skoppy Jun 09, 2008 at 09:54

I am still a little bit confused on how I can give each of the checkboxes a unique id attribute. I'd like to create a label for each of my checkboxes which I am currently unable to do without unique ids.

Any help will be most appreciated.

Report as Spam

13. Brandan Lennox Jun 30, 2008 at 14:17

@skoppy

If you are using fields_for in the way that Ryan is in his code, Rails should provide a unique id. If that's not working, you could always pass your own id as an HTML attribute:

f.check_box :property, :id => "some-unique-id"

Report as Spam

14. Mauricio Lule Oct 01, 2008 at 22:11

Im trying to update Proyect-Users-role taking this approach. But i have an ActiveRecord::ReadOnlyRecord message. My assiciation table is projects_users and it has project_id, user_id, role_id as fields. How can this be done?

Report as Spam

15. adam Feb 26, 2009 at 04:35

ryan, absolutely rate your casts. Best thing since cheese on toast.

Ive tried to create an ajax version of this using form_remote_tag but having problems (im fairly new at rails). Im wondering is implementing ajax functionality for this situation any more complicated than usual ajax stuff and hence why you didnt introduce it here?

Could you provide me any hints or warnings regarding this?

Report as Spam

16. Alexandre Aug 06, 2009 at 10:00

Hello Ryan, I have this solutin in an application, but since I updated to rails 2.3.3 the parameters are note passed as an array, but as a hash like this:

expected
"task_ids"=>["1","2","3","4"]

now I receive =>
"task_ids"=>[{"1"=>nil}, {"2"=>nil}, {"3"=>nil}, {"4"=>nil}]

do you know if it is an issue or the default new behavior should be as is....

thanks

Report as Spam

17. flug Aug 07, 2009 at 10:34

Alexandre, I got this problem some year ago and fixed it somehow. Can u please provide us with your exact view-code and full params at submit...

Report as Spam

18. jDeppen Aug 14, 2009 at 22:00

I'm having the same issue as @Alexandre (Rails 2.3.3)

Report as Spam

19. UGG Cozy Sandals Nov 30, 2009 at 19:33

Report as Spam

20. Kevin Garnett shoes Dec 04, 2009 at 00:32

we first ensure that the task IDs belong to the current logged in user (in case someone edits the HTML and puts in a task ID that doesn't belong to them)?

Report as Spam

21. ghd Apr 08, 2010 at 01:47

(not shown

Report as Spam

22. jian Apr 19, 2010 at 01:20

http://da-crystal.net/GCMS/blog/checkboxlist-in-qt/

Report as Spam

23. Felipe Cerda Jun 06, 2010 at 23:35

Hey Ryan, I know you did this tutorial a long time ago but I'm wondering what are the changes to do this with Rails 3.

(I hope you read this comment!)

Report as Spam

24. Mohamed Jun 27, 2010 at 14:10

Thanks ryan.

It works well.

By
Mohamed

Report as Spam

25. free directory list Aug 11, 2010 at 22:19

Just to echo what others have said, after multiple searches across the web this solved my check_box problem in five minutes. Thanks so much!

Report as Spam

26. nike dunks low Aug 17, 2010 at 20:09

his was great. Just wondering if there is a way to do this without using REST? If we were to do this with multiple users, how can we first ensure that the task IDs belong to the current logged in user

Report as Spam

27. louis vuitton shoes Aug 26, 2010 at 21:10

Thanks for sharing your article. I really enjoyed it. I put a link to my site to here so other people can read it. My readers have about the same interets

Report as Spam

28. snow boots Aug 31, 2010 at 01:26

In this example the items disappear from the list when they are marked as complete.

Report as Spam

29. louis vuitton sunglasses Sep 01, 2010 at 21:42

Good post, I can’t say that I agree with everything that was said, but very good information overall:)

Report as Spam