Question

This is my first time creating a custom action so I’m a bit lost. I created a form where I enter a URL. This URL is passed to my controller where I use the URL to parse html (via Nokogiri).

The problem I am having is that I have no idea how to use this URL parameter that is being passed.

Here is the action in my controller:

def newdeal

 url = @traveldeal.url   #this is where I want to use the URL from my form_for
 doc = Nokogiri::HTML(open(url))


 title = doc.at_css("#content//h2/a").text
 price = doc.at_css(".integer").text[/[0-9\.]+/]
 link = doc.at_css("#content//h2/a")[:href]
 desc = doc.at_css(".descriptor").text

 Traveldeal.create(:title => title, :price => price, :url => link, :description => desc)

 flash[:success] = "Deal successfully added!"
 redirect_to root_path
 end

The error I’m getting is undefined method 'url'. I’ve tried doing something like url = :url and even url = "#{:url}", but I get nil class error, so it appears that I’m just referencing it incorrectly.

The parameter is passed correctly though when I press submit:

{"utf8"=>"✓", "authenticity_token"=>"tGPYiuVO3dtRaNVvd6HAshqpTV7yXCmM1j0dXRSfpR4=", "traveldeal"=>{"url"=>"http://www.sampleurl.com"}, "button"=>""}

Here is the view:

<%= form_for @traveldeal, :url => newdeal_path, :method => 'post'  do |f| %>


<div class="field">
  <%= f.label :url %>
  <%= f.text_field :url, :class => "round"  %>
</div>

<div class="action">
  <%= button_tag "",  :class => "acctSubmit" %>
</div>
<% end %>

Thanks.

Answer 1

You need @traveldeal = Traveldeal.new(params[:traveldeal]) before url = @traveldeal.url in your action.