Question

I have a constant called PAYMENT_METHODS in venue.rb.

PAYMENT_METHODS = ['Visa', 'MasterCard', 'American Express', 'Diners', 'JCB', 'Bankomat', 'sodexo', 'MA-Gutscheine']

You can check/uncheck the payment types in a form (payment_options is an integer):

<%= hidden_field_tag "venue[payment_options][]", nil %>
<% Venue::PAYMENT_METHODS.each do |category| %>
  <%= check_box_tag "venue[payment_options][]", category %>
  <%= label_tag category %>
<% end %>

Now I want to save the selection, but the value of each check box is the name of the payment option. I think I have to somehow add a key an store only the keys.

How do I set keys and save the collection to the database?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Make the constant a hash or an array, e.g.

PAYMENT_METHODS = {'Visa' => 1, 'MasterCard' => 2, 'American Express' => 3, 'Diners' => 4, 'JCB' => 5, 'Bankomat' => 6, 'sodexo' => 7, 'MA-Gutscheine' => 8 }

These will now be in a format that you can pass to options_for_select http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/FormOptionsHelper.html#method-i-options_for_select.

If you (really) want checkboxes, an array is fine, just loop over using PAYMENT_MTHODS.each_index do |index| to get an iterator that’s the value, and then use PAYMENT_METHODS[index].

I have always found it odd that the hash key is the part displayed in the list, but I guess it makes sense that the value is what is associated with the option’s value :-).