Save multiple same named fields to database record

Question

I'm trying to save multiple fields with the same name into the database record

This is what I have for now:

<%= form_for @complaint, url: {action: 'create'}, :html => {:multipart => true} do |f| %>
  <%= f.label :complaint_info, 'Describa lo que sucedió' %>

  <%= f.cktext_area :complaint_info, :class => 'someclass', :ckeditor => {:language => 'us', :toolbar => 'mini'}, tabindex: '-1' %>

  <%= f.fields_for :witnesses do |witnesses_form| %>
        <%= witnesses_form.label :name, '¿Hay testigos?' %>
        <%= witnesses_form.text_field :name, placeholder: 'Escriba el nombre del testigo', tabindex: '-1' %>
        <%= witnesses_form.label :phone, 'Número de teléfono del testigo' %>
        <%= witnesses_form.text_field :phone, placeholder: 'Escriba el número de teléfono' %>

        <%= witnesses_form.label :name, '¿Hay testigos?' %>
        <%= witnesses_form.text_field :name, placeholder: 'Escriba el nombre del testigo', tabindex: '-1' %>
        <%= witnesses_form.label :phone, 'Número de teléfono del testigo' %>
        <%= witnesses_form.text_field :phone, placeholder: 'Escriba el número de teléfono' %>
  <% end %>


<% end %>

In the controller:

  def new
    @complaint = Complaint.new
    @complaint.witnesses.build
  end

  def create
    @complaint = current_user.complaints.build(complaint_params)
    if @complaint.save

      redirect_to dashboard_complaint_path(@complaint)
    else
      render 'new'
    end
  end

  private

  def complaint_params
    params.require(:complaint).permit(:complaint_info, witnesses_attributes: [:name, :phone])
  end

What I want to do is give the user the option to add multiple witnesses and save them each into a new record in the database.

EDIT:

here are the models:

Complaint:

class Complaint < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user
  has_many   :witnesses

  accepts_nested_attributes_for :witnesses
end

and Witness:

class Witness < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :complaint
end

EDIT2:

Heres what the controller returns

Started POST "/dashboard/complaints" for 127.0.0.1 at 2015-06-10 12:14:10 -0400
Processing by Dashboard::ComplaintsController#create as HTML
  Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", "authenticity_token"=>"0ek0KaaYdUR1ktwUOLCeEdAG0fB63WOIJIIXL7ASM1zMbXWDHyCcXce82ijpLJRmneHs39Um9EehL/GWJkPqiw==", "complaint"=>{"complaint_info"=>"<p>This is the description</p>\r\n", "witnesses_attributes"=>{"0"=>{"name"=>"Second witness", "phone"=>"7877877877"}}}, "button"=>""}
  User Load (0.3ms)  SELECT  "users".* FROM "users" WHERE "users"."id" = $1  ORDER BY "users"."id" ASC LIMIT 1  [["id", 1]]
   (0.3ms)  BEGIN
  SQL (0.8ms)  INSERT INTO "complaints" ("complaint_info", "user_id", "created_at", "updated_at") VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7, $8) RETURNING "id"  [["complaint_info", "<p>This is the description</p>\r\n"], ["user_id", 1], ["created_at", "2015-06-10 16:14:10.452890"], ["updated_at", "2015-06-10 16:14:10.452890"]]
  SQL (1.3ms)  INSERT INTO "witnesses" ("name", "phone", "complaint_id", "created_at", "updated_at") VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5) RETURNING "id"  [["name", "Second witness"], ["phone", "7877877877"], ["complaint_id", 19], ["created_at", "2015-06-10 16:14:10.457497"], ["updated_at", "2015-06-10 16:14:10.457497"]]
   (96.3ms)  COMMIT
Redirected to http://localhost:3000/dashboard/complaints/19
Completed 302 Found in 125ms (ActiveRecord: 98.9ms)

As you can see, it only saves one witness record ["name", "Second witness"] and is the last field (there are two fields, I typed First witness and Second witness in the last one).

@Daiku there is no error, I just can't find a way to save multiple fields with the same name, it just saves a single record with the information typed in the last field/s that are named the same :name :phone — Johhan Santana
– Johhan Santana, Commented Jun 10, 2015 at 16:05

Arup Rakshit · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-10 16:15:39Z

1

Well, here is the approach. Say you want 2 records to save. Then you need to do :

def new
  @complaint = Complaint.new
  2.times { @complaint.witnesses.build }
end

The change your form as :

<%= form_for @complaint, url: {action: 'create'}, :html => {:multipart => true} do |f| %>
  <%= f.label :complaint_info, 'Describa lo que sucedió' %>

  <%= f.cktext_area :complaint_info, :class => 'someclass', :ckeditor => {:language => 'us', :toolbar => 'mini'}, tabindex: '-1' %>

  <%= f.fields_for :witnesses do |witnesses_form| %>
        <%= witnesses_form.label :name, '¿Hay testigos?' %>
        <%= witnesses_form.text_field :name, placeholder: 'Escriba el nombre del testigo', tabindex: '-1' %>
        <%= witnesses_form.label :phone, 'Número de teléfono del testigo' %>
        <%= witnesses_form.text_field :phone, placeholder: 'Escriba el número de teléfono' %>
  <% end %>
<% end %>

The block given to the nested fields_for call will be repeated for each witnesses instance in the associated with the f object.

answered Jun 10, 2015 at 16:15

Arup Rakshit

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6 Comments

Johhan Santana Over a year ago

oh wow, never knew that doing x.times would auto duplicate the fields, thank you so much sir!

Arup Rakshit Over a year ago

@Johhan I want to be your friend.. Do you? :)

Johhan Santana Over a year ago

sure? lol, btw if I only want to show the label once, is there another trick to that?

Arup Rakshit Over a year ago

which label ? inside the fields_for ?

Arup Rakshit Over a year ago

@Johhan that's possible.. But wouldn't it look bad. And really if you want, then use label_tag, and put outside the loop, just top of the fields_for and remove the label_tag out of the block...

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