Question

I have a Rails view (recipes/new) which allows users to enter a new recipe. In that view, the user can select items from another model, ingredients. I wanted a way for the users to add a new ingredient without leaving the recipe form.

I created a link for new ingredients which loads a JQuery modal box. Here is the code in my recipes.js file which drives the modal:

assets/javascripts/recipes.js

this code from @coreyward’s answer – see Jquery modal windows and edit object for details – thanks, corey!

$(function(){
    var $modal = $('#modal'),
        $modal_close = $modal.find('.close'),
        $modal_container = $('#modal-container');

    $('a[data-remote]').live('ajax:beforeSend', function(e, xhr, settings){
        xhr.setRequestHeader('accept', '*/*;q=0.5, text/html, ' + settings.accepts.html);       
    });

    $('a[data-remote]').live('ajax:success', function(xhr, data, status){
        $modal
            .html(data)
            .prepend($modal_close)
            .css('top', $(window).scrollTop() + 40)
            .show();
        $modal_container.show();
    });

    $('.close', '#modal').live('click', function(){
        $modal_container.hide();
        $modal.hide();
        return false;
    });
});

My link in the recipes/new.html.erb:

<%= link_to 'New ingredient', new_ingredient_path, :remote => true %>

This works great, in the sense that it loads the modal form with the new ingredient form in there. I can fill out the form, and if the ingredient is saved, I call another function from my controller to close the modal:

ingredients_controller.rb

def create
  if @ingredient.save
    respond_to do |format|
      format.js { render :js => "close_modal();" }
    end
  end
end

My problem is when the form is not filled out correctly. The user clicks and gets no feedback that there are any errors/missing fields, etc… I would like to reload the ingredient form in the popup box, which will render a shared errors partial:

ingredients/new.html.erb

<%= form_for @ingredient, :remote => true do |i| %>
    <%= render 'shared/ingredient_error_messages' %>

    <div class="field">
        <%= i.label :name %>
        <%= i.text_field :name %>
    </div>
    <div class="field">
        <%= i.label :srm %>
        <%= i.text_field :srm %>
    </div>
    <div class="field">
        <%= i.label :price %>
        <%= i.text_field :price %>
    </div>
    <div class="actions">
        <%= i.submit "Save ingredient" %>
    </div>
<% end %>

shared/_ingredient_error_messages.html.erb

<% if @ingredient.errors.any? %>
    <div id="error_explanation">
        <h2><%= pluralize(@ingredient.errors.count, "error") %>
            prohibited this recipe from being saved:</h2>
        <p>There were problems with the following fields:</p>
        <ul>
            <% @ingredient.errors.full_messages.each do |msg| %>

                <li><%= msg %></li>
            <% end %>
        </ul>
    </div>
<% end %>

What’s the best way to get this to work? I can easily create another JS function and call it from the controller if the save is not successful, but I can’t find a way to pass in anything but straight text/html. Is there a way, in the controller, I can parse and output to a function the contents of my ‘new’ view? Is there a better/cleaner way to do this?

Answer 1

Here is a link to a github Rails JQuery-Modal form that was designed by Ramblex to do this very thing:

https://github.com/ramblex/modal-form

Here is the respective SO question that it solved (so you can upvote his answer): Rails and modal jquery dialog form