Question

I would like to “post” text from the page the user is currently viewing (if this is possible) to a ‘new’ action in rails so that it can pre-load a given field for the user to review before he/she submits the form. I am not sure if an ajax post can help. A GET call to ‘new’ with a query string won’t work due to the limit on chars for IE. Thank you.

Answer 1

Use the :value attribute:

<%= f.text_field :name, :value => @default_name %>

Then (for example) POST the variables you need with link_to:

<%= link_to "Form", form_path, :method => :POST, :default_name => "Bob" %>

Or (another example) with javascript (jQuery):

**An AJAX post will not work as the page will not be redirected. You will need to simulate a form post.

<a href="" id="form_link">Form Page</a> // link to form page

<form id="form" action="http://example.com/form" method="POST">  // hidden form
    <input type="hidden" name="default_name" value="Bob" />  
</form>

---

$("#form_link").click(function() {  // jQuery to submit the form when the link is clicked
  $("#form").submit();
});

The name field will be pre-populated with “Bob”. You will of course need the following in your controller action:

@default_name = params[:default_name]