Question

I’m trying to use multiple instance of the same class in a view with rails.
Basically i need to show a Branch with all its attributes and in the same page i have a form_for that need an empty Branch object. The problem is that when i create the empty Branch instance in the controller “@newBranch” the view can’t access the first one anymore

here what I do in the controller:

def show
  @customer = Customer.find(params[:id])
  @branches = @customer.branches
  @newBranch = @customer.branches.new          #this is for the form_for
  @newContact = @newBranch.build_contact       #this is for the fields_for    
end

if i try to use a singular item of the collection @branches for example:

<div class = "branch_container">
  <%= render :partial => "customers/branch", :collection => @branches %>
</div>

and then inside the branch partial:

<%= branch.contact.name %>

i have the message:

“undefined method `name’ for nil:NilClass”

All the models associations work fine and if i don’t instantiate @newBranch and @newContact the problem disappear.

Basically i need to use two instance of the same Class (for example “@branches” in one partial and “@newBranch” in another one) in the same view.

What could be the solution?
Thank you.

Answer 1

At the end i created @newBranch and @newContact in the view inside the form in the following way:

<%= form_for(newBranch = Building.new, :html => { :multipart => true }) do |building_form| %>
    <% newBranch.build_contact %>
    etc... etc...