Question

I am currently trying to program my first ajax interface using Rails.

The application currently shows a table populated with list items. The user has to approve or reject each of the list items. I currently have an edit link at the end of each row that shows a form in which I can approve the list item.

I am thinking on using a checkbox instead of the edit link. When the user clicks the checkbox I want to update the database with the status, user name and date/time without leaving this page.

1. What steps should I follow?
2. Can I use a checkbox or am I restricted to buttons?
3. What xxx_remote helper should I use?
4. How can I update the checkbox state with the results of the ajax call?

Answer 1

I don’t think that a checkbox is the correct control for what you’re looking for. You said you want user’s to be able to approve or reject items which means that you have 3 states: unhandled, approved and rejected. A checkbox only supports 2 states: off and on

I would use two links accept and reject and then do it as follows.

In your view:

... <tr id='item1'>   <td>Accept or Reject</td>   <td>     link_to_remote 'accept', :action => :accept, :id => 1, :method => :post     link_to_remote 'reject', :action => :reject, :id => 1, :method => :post   </td> </tr> ... 

In your controller

def accept   item = Item.find(params[:id])   item.accept   respond_to do |want|     want.js {       render :update do |page|         page << '$('item_#{item.id}').cells[0].innerHTML = 'Accepted''         ...include other updates you need to make to your row...         page.visual_effect :highlight, 'item_#{item.id}'       end     }   end end     ... similar for reject method ...