"unknown attribute" error in nested form

Question

I have a class called Appointment that has, among other attributes, start_time.

In my form, I'm not using start_time directly. I'm separating it into start_time_time (I know it's an awkward name) and start_time_ymd. My goal is to combine start_time_ymd and start_time_time into a complete start_time. (I'm doing this because I don't like the UI for the helper that comes with a date field.)

The error I'm getting is unknown attribute: start_time_time, which is of course not surprising because Appointment doesn't have any attribute called start_time_time.

If start_time_time were something from a related model, I could just do something like accepts_nested_attributes_for :whatever, but since it's not, that wouldn't make sense.

How can I do what I'm trying to do? (I'm a Rails noob so you might have to spoon-feed it to me.)

Andy Lindeman · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-21 16:32:09Z

1

I think using a virtual attribute (text version) is your best bet.

answered Jan 21, 2011 at 16:32

Andy Lindeman

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4 Comments

Jason Swett Over a year ago

Hmm, that certainly seems like the right idea, but they're not doing quite the same thing as me. They're combining two fields into one and I'm splitting one field into two. It's not possible, as far as I can think, to have to separate setters (start_time_time and start_time_ymd) set the value for one value (start_time). So I'm still unable to solve my problem.

Jason Swett Over a year ago

Possibly important: I'm trying to instantiate my Appointment object by saying @appointment = Appointment.new(params[:appointment]). Perhaps I'll have to instantiate a blank object and set each attribute individually in order for this solution to work.

Jason Swett Over a year ago

If I set each attribute separately, it worked, and it didn't matter if I had any virtual attributes or not.

Andy Lindeman Over a year ago

The real column is represented as a DateTime object, right? Your virtual attributes can each set certain attributes on the DateTime and not run over each other.

polarblau · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-21 16:32:13Z

1

You could try this in your model:

attr_accessible :start_time_time, :start_time_ymd

answered Jan 21, 2011 at 16:32

polarblau

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3 Comments

polarblau Over a year ago

Nope: apidock.com/rails/ActiveModel/MassAssignmentSecurity/…

zlog Over a year ago

Ah, seems like it was added in rails3. I'm using rails2 atm, and it didn't work.

polarblau Over a year ago

(I think I was off in context of the question. — Would have to revisit it.)

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