Question

I have a form that I copied over from new.html.erb and put it in edit.html.erb. I essentially want the same form, but if there are values already in the database for the form fields I want them to be pulled into the form for editing. I currently have something like this:

<%= form_for @user do |f| %>
<% if @user.errors.any? %>
<div class="error_messages">
  <h2>Form is invalid</h2>
  <ul>
    <% for message in @user.errors.full_messages %>
      <li><%= message %></li>
    <% end %>
  </ul>
</div>
<% end %>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label :name %>
<%= f.text_field :name %>
 </div>
 <div class="field">
<%= f.label :email %>
<%= f.text_field :email %>
</div>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label :password %>
<%= f.password_field :password %>
</div>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label :password_confirmation %>
<%= f.password_field :password_confirmation %>
</div>
.
.
.
.

<div class="actions"><%= f.submit %></div>
<% end %>

How can I pull from the the database to fill in the fields with appropriate values?

Answer 1

This will happen automatically if you set @user in the ‘edit’ action of your controller – something like

def edit
  @user = User.find(params[:id])
end

you might also think about including the form as a partial rather than repeating it to DRY up your code – this link gives the general idea