Question

Trying to build a search on my homepage with simple_form (Pretty much same as formtastic). The search works fine and im getting my results but after submission I want to retain the vales with what the user submitted.

I am using a namespace for my form so how can I retain the data for the form. Here is some code which may help.

Controller

def index
  @results = Property.search(params[:search])
end

View

%h1 Search Form
= simple_form_for(:search) do |f|
    = f.input :location, :as => :select, :collection => Location.all.asc(:name)
        = f.input :type, :collection => PropertyType.all.asc(:name)
        = f.input :bedrooms, :collection => 1..10,
    %p.box
        = f.button :submit

-if @results
    %h1 Search Results
    .results
        - @results.each do |property|
            .result
                %h1= property.title

Within the Index controller I have tried all sorts of things ie

@search = params[:search]

But each time I try something the search breaks.

What am I doing wrong ?

Hope you can advise

Answer 1

One approach is to do as Xavier Holt suggested, and pass in values to each input. The simpleform doco suggests:

 = f.input :remember_me, :input_html => { :value => '1' }

The other approach is to have simpleform do it for you. SimpleForm will automatically populate the fields with values if you give it something like an activerecord object.

In this case, that means creating a model object:

class PropertySearchCriteria
  attr_accessor :location, :type, :bedrooms
  def initialize(options)
    self.location = options[:location]
    self.type = options[:bedrooms]
    self.bedrooms = options[:bedrooms]
  end
end

Then, change your controller:

def index
  @property_search_criteria = PropertySearchCriteria.new(params[:search])
  @results = Property.search(@property_search_criteria)
end

(you’ll have to change the Property.search method as well)

Then, change your simple_form_for:

= simple_form_for(:search, @property_search_criteria) do |f|

And if you do all that, and get the stars to align just right, then simpleform will pre-populate the form fields all by itself. You may have to add some stuff to PropertySearchCriteria to get simpleform to be properly happy.

This is a lot of stuffing around just to get the values showing up, but it’ll keep you sane if you need to add validations.