Question

I have a Report with many nested Value objects:

Report class

class Report < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :comments
  has_many :values
  accepts_nested_attributes_for :values
end

Value class

class Value < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :value, :assessed_user_id, :behaviour_id

  belongs_to :assessed_user
  belongs_to :behaviour

  belongs_to :report

end

I need a form that will accept a Report with its associated matrix of Value objects like so:

| User | Behaviour1 | Behaviour2 | Behaviour3 |
| Bob  |     ___    |    ___     |    ___     |
| Jane |     ___    |    ___     |    ___     |
| Jill |     ___    |    ___     |    ___     |

I’m new to rails and I’ve read all about nested attributes and I’ve tried a million variations on semantic_form_for and possibilities with formtastic, but I cannot seem to place the proper value.value objects in their right places or to set their behaviour and assessed_user as hidden fields, but I cannot seem to get this to work.

The following shows what are supposed to be hidden fields and I cannot get my create (follows) to accept it. Also, I don’t see any indexes on the sub-form elements:

<%= semantic_form_for @report do |f| %>
  <table>
    <tr>
      <th>User</th>
    <% @behaviours.each do |behaviour| %>
      <th><%= behaviour.name %></th>
    <% end %>
    </tr>
    <% index = 0 %>
    <% @members.each do |member| %>
      <tr>
        <td><%= member.first_name %> <%= member.last_name %></td>
        <% @behaviours.each do |behaviour| %>
          <% @report.values[index].behaviour_id = behaviour.id %>
          <% @report.values[index].assessed_user_id = member.id %>
          <td>

              <%= f.inputs :behaviour_id, :as => :hidden, :for => @report.values[index] %>
              <%= f.inputs :assessed_user_id, :as => :hidden, :for => @report.values[index] %>
              <%= f.inputs :value, :for => :values, :for => @report.values[index] %>
              <% index = index + 1  %>
          </td>
        <% end %>
      </tr>
    <% end %>  

  </table>
  <%= f.inputs :comments %>

  <%= f.buttons %>
<% end %>

reports_controller.rb

def create
  @report = Report.new( params[:report] )
end

Answer 1

You can have a look on this Railscate esp
http://railscasts.com/episodes/196-nested-model-form-part-1