Question

I am a three week old Rails newbie and I have something that I want to implement but have no idea how to go about it. I’m making an app:

I want a user to enter some sign-up info on the new users view page, then, when they click submit, instead of the user being created and saved in the database right away, instead I want them to be taken to a second webpage where they will be asked for some final verification before they can create their account. Then when they click ‘verify’ and the verification passes, the account is finally created and saved to the database.

This is hard for me because I only know how to make basic forms, where you enter info, hit submit, and you have a new entry in the database. I don’t know how to defer the “user creation” for another webpage, but a friend has mentioned something about http requests, but I still don’t know anything. I’ll post some of my code so far:

My users_controller new definition:

def new
  @user = User.new
  @user.websites.build
end

My users_controller create method:

def create
  @user = User.new(params[:user])
  if @user.save
    sign_in @user
    flash[:success] = "Welcome!"
    redirect_to @user
  else
    render 'new'
  end
end

My users/new.html.erb sign up form:

<% provide(:title, 'Sign up') %>
<h1>Sign up</h1>
<%= render 'shared/error_messages' %>
<%= form_for(@user) do |f| %>

  <%= f.label :email %>
  <%= f.text_field :email %><br/>

  <%= f.label :password %>
  <%= f.password_field :password %><br/>

  <%= f.label :password_confirmation, 'Confirm Password' %>
  <%= f.password_field :password_confirmation %><br/>

  <%= f.fields_for :websites do |builder| %>
    <%= builder.label :url, 'Website URL' %>
    <%= builder.text_field :url %>
  <% end %>

  <%= f.submit "Sign up", :id => 'submit' %>
<% end %>

I’ve never asked a question that’s just asking for advice like this before, so I’m hoping this is the right place to ask. Any and all help is appreciated.

Answer 1

I think you are trying to create a “multistep” form…
There is a very good railscast about it: http://railscasts.com/episodes/217-multistep-forms?view=asciicast

However, you might face some validation problems, as you need to validate each step individually. So, take a look also here: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_record_validations_callbacks.html#conditional-validation

I hope it helps…