Question

I have an application that allows users to create loads and bid on them.

I want a way to go through the application and reserve a bid which will then process a credit card, but I am having issues setting up the reservation model. Here is the setup:

Models with their associations:

class Reservation < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :load
  belongs_to :bid

  validates :load_id, presence: true
  validates :bid_id, presence: true
end

class Load < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :bids, :dependent => :delete_all
  has_one :reservation
end

class Bid < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :load
  has_one :reservation
end

The reservation migration only includes the references to the two tables.
In my reservations controller I have the following code:

class ReservationsController < ApplicationController

  before_filter :find_load
  before_filter :find_bid 

  def new
    @reservation = @load.build_reservation(params[:reservation])
  end

  def create
    @reservation = @load.build_reservation(params[:reservation].merge!(:bid_id => params[:bid_id])) 
    if @reservation.save
      flash[:notice] = "Reservation has been created successfully"
      redirect_to [@load, @bid]
    else
      render :new
    end
  end

  def find_load
    @load = Load.find(params[:load_id])
  end

  def find_bid
    @bid = Bid.find(params[:bid_id])
  end
end

In my config routes file I have the following:

resources :loads do 
  resources :bids do 
    resources :reservations
  end
end

The migration for the reservations model looks like this:

def change
  create_table :reservations do |t|
    t.references :load
    t.references :bid
    t.timestamps
  end
end

The View Code:

<h4>Reserve this bid: </h4>
  <dl>
    <dt>Carrier</dt>
    <dd><%= @bid.user.email %></dd>
    <dt>Bid Amount:</dt>
    <dd><%= @bid.bid_price %></dd>
 </dl>

<%= form_for [@load, @bid, @reservation], :html => {:class => 'payment_form'} do |f| %>
  <%= f.error_messages %>
<fieldset>
  <div class="field">
    <%= label_tag :card_number, "Credit Card Number" %>
    <%= text_field_tag :card_number, nil, name: nil %>
  </div>
  <div class="field">
    <%= label_tag :card_code, "Security Code on Back of Card (CVV)" %>
    <%= text_field_tag :card_code, nil, name: nil %>
  </div>
  <div class="field">
    <%= label_tag :card_month, "Card Expiration" %>
    <%= select_month nil, { add_month_numbers: true }, { name: nil, id: "card_month" } %>
    <%= select_year nil, { start_year: Date.today.year, end_year: Date.today.year+15 },
  { name: nil, id: "card_year" } %>
 </div>
</fieldset>

When I go to submit the form, I get the following validation error: “Bid can’t be blank”. It looks like the form is submitting the bid as nil, and I am unsure of why it is doing this. I don’t believe the first line of code is correct in my create action of the controller, and I have tried all of the permutations that I could think of and I can’t get it to work.

Answer 1

Since your form doesn’t contain any data you’ll be saving you can simply do this:

@reservation = @load.build_reservation(:bid_id => @bid.id)

If you add reservation fields that you want to save in the future, params[:reservation] will not be nil and you will be able to do:

@reservation = @load.build_reservation(params[:reservation].merge(:bid_id => @bid.id))

Another way would be to add a hidden field to your form that contains the bid_id, but since you already have it in the URL, this may not be the best approach.