Adds two RJS helper methods to help work with accepts_nested_attributes_for and partials. Based on the method suggested by Marsvin on RailsForum.com
To install as a plugin (Rails)
cd into your Rails root folder
script/plugin install git://github.com/miletbaker/add_nested_fields.git
Example form
<% form_for @product do |f| %>
...
<% f.fields_for :product_variations do |prod_var| %>
<%= render :partial => 'product_variation', :locals => { :f => prod_var } %>
<% end %>
<%= add_nested_fields_for(f, :product_variations, 'variations') %>
<% end %>
example _product_variation.rb
<li class="product_variation">
...
<%= remove_nested_fields_for(f, 'product_variation') %>
...
</li>
add_nested_fields_for adds a link to a javascript function that adds an additional nested model form, based on a partial.
form_builder is the current form_for builder
attribute is the property of the model that holds the relationship, i.e. in the link above Product has a has_many relationship to product_variations and hence :product_variations is its attribute.
dom_id is the id of the HTML element to insert the partial into the bottom of.
You can optionally also supply:
:partial => defaults to the singular name of the attribute, in the above example 'product_variation'
:label => defaults to "Add" plus the title case, singular name of the attribute
:object => defaults to creating a new instance of an object using the camel-cased name of the attribute i.e. above that would be ProductVariation.new
:local => lets you specify the name of the form builder object inside the partial. Defaults to "f"
remove_nested_fields_for adds a link to a javascript function that if new, removes the partial, and if existing sets a hidden field _marking it's removal _delete=1, informing rails to delete the record and hides the partial.
form_builder is the fields_for builder, passed to the partial via the locals option.
dom_class is the class of the HTML element that forms the whole of the partial, the function searches up from the link for a HTML element with the matching class and removes or hides it as above.
Your models should validate the nested models as expected however there are a couple of issues around the order validation is done and models are saved.
If you would like to validate the presence of nested attributes, for example, with the above code, if you wanted to ensure that there was at least one ProductVariation present when saving the Product model, you could add something along the lines of the following to your validate method override in your Product model
def validate
...
# TODO: create validates_presence_of_nested_attributes
errors.add(:product_variations, " must have at least one variation.") unless product_variations.select {|var| var._delete != true}.length > 0
...
end
This is needed because models are not removed until the save so in some cases the user may have requested to delete a nested model by setting _delete to true but at the time of validation the model is still present.
There are also some issues validating that the parent_id is present in the child. See the RailsForum.com thread for details
Copyright (c) 2009 Go Tripod Ltd, released under the MIT license