Question

I am currently running into a problem of connecting one model to another. Basically I want a user (user model) to be able to select a specific school (school model) through a form and the user will be under that specific school until they change it. I can’t figure out how to exactly go about doing this, any help will be much appreciated! Thank you!

user model

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :name, :email, :password, :password_confirmation, :biography, :avatar
  has_secure_password
  belongs_to :school, foreign_key: "school_id"
end

I have nothing defined for anything of school in the user model cause I am not sure what to put.

school model

class School < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :name, :school_id

  has_many :users

  validates :school_id, presence: true

end

user controller

def create
  @user = User.new(params[:user])
  if @user.save
    redirect_to @user
  else
    redirect_to current_school
  end
end

def update
 @user = current_user
 if @user.update_attributes(params[:user])
  flash[:notice] = "Successfully updated profile."
  redirect_to home_path
 else
  redirect_to current_school
 end
end

school controller

def create
  school = School.find(params[:name])
   if school
   session[:school_id] = school.id
   redirect_to school_path(school)
  end
end

def show
  @school = School.find(params[:id])
  @user = User.new
end

Form for User with school inside

<%= simple_form_for @user do |f| %>
<%= f.label :Name %></br>
<%= f.text_field :name, :class => 'modal_settingfield' %>
</br></br>
<%= f.label :Email %></br>
<%= f.text_field :email, :class => 'modal_settingfield' %>
</br></br>
<%= f.label :Password %> <span class='faded'>(Leave blank to not change)</span>
<%= f.password_field :password, :class => 'modal_settingfield'%>
</br></br>
<%= f.label :Password_Confirmation %> <span class='faded'>(Leave blank to not change)</span>
<%= f.password_field :password_confirmation, :class => 'modal_settingfield'%>
</br></br>
<%= f.label :School_id %> <span class='faded'>(Leave blank to not change)</span>
<%= f.association :school, collection: @schools, label_method: :name, value_method: :id, prompt: "Select a school", :label => false, :required => false %>
<%= f.label :Biography %> <span class='faded'>(Please limit Biography to <span class='TextCounter'></span>letters)</span></br>
<%= f.text_area :biography, :class => 'modal_settingfield'%>
</br></br>
<%= f.label :Photo %> <span class='faded'>(Add a Profile Picture)</span></br>
<%= f.file_field :avatar %>
<%= f.submit 'Update', :class => 'update_button' %>
<% end %>

Current School

def current_school
  @current_school ||= School.find(session[:school_id]) if session[:school_id]
end
helper_method :current_school

Sessions Controller(This is login code)

def create
  user = User.find_by_email(params[:email])
  if user && user.authenticate(params[:password])
    if params[:remember_me]
      cookies.permanent[:auth_token] = user.auth_token
    else
      cookies[:auth_token] = user.auth_token
    end
    redirect_to home_path
  else
    flash.now.alert = "Invalid email or password"
    redirect_to current_school
  end
end

def destroy
  cookies.delete(:auth_token)
  redirect_to current_school
end

Answer 1

I suggest the simple_form gem for this type of thing, and in general for easier, cleaner and less verbose forms. See the section on Collections.

You’d have code like this:

<%= simple_form_for @user do |f| %>
  <%= f.input :name %>
  <%= f.input :school_id, collection: @schools, label_method: :name, value_method: :id, prompt: "Select a school" %>
  <%= f.button :submit %>
<% end %>

This assumes that the @schools variable is set by the controller action that renders this form. I’m assuming that these would be School objects, having :name and :id methods.

Also, your School model should probably not have school_id as attr_accessible, I think you want this on the User model, along with the validation rule. You also don’t need to set the foreign key explicitly if you’re following the conventional naming, i.e.:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :school_id, :name, :email, :password, :password_confirmation, :biography, :avatar
  has_secure_password
  belongs_to :school

  validates :school, presence: true
end