Question

I am having some issues with nested models in a form, using Rails 3.1rc4.

I presently have models that look like this:

class Sale < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :customer_id, :vehicle_id, :sale_date

  belongs_to :customer
  accepts_nested_attributes_for :customer
end

and

class Customer < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :dealership_id, :first_name, :last_name, :address1, :email

  belongs_to :dealership

  has_many :sales
  has_many :vehicles, :through => :sales

end

I’ve obviously truncated these slightly, but all the important info is there.

I am attempting to set up a sale form that will also allow me to create a new customer, hence the accepts_nested_attributes_for :customer line in the sale model.

My form view looks like (again truncated, only the important part):

    <%= form_for @sale, :html => {:class => 'fullform'} do |f| %>

        <%= f.error_messages %>

        <%= field_set_tag 'Customer Details' do %>
            <% f.fields_for :customer do |builder| %>
                <%= builder.label :first_name %><br>
                <%= builder.text_field :first_name %>
            <% end %>
        <% end %>
    <% end %>

The problem I am having is that neither the text field nor the label for :first_name are showing up when the form is rendered – there is no error message, it just doesn’t appear.

I should mention that I have tried both with and without @sale.customer.build in the new method of my controller, but it seems to have had no effect.

Thanks!

Can anyone suggest what I am doing wrong?

EDIT: For the avoidance of doubt, my sales controller’s new method looks like:

def new
  @sale = Sale.new
  @sale.customer.build
end

Answer 1

Add customer_attributes to your attr_accessible in the Sale model.

Another mistake; Replace:

<% f.fields_for :customer do |builder| %>

With:

<%= f.fields_for :customer do |builder| %>