Mention associations in Form Helpers guide [ci-skip] #45779
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guides/source/form_helpers.md
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| @@ -581,25 +581,40 @@ Outputs a select box like: | |||
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| For each of these helpers, you may specify a date or time object instead of a number as the default value, and the appropriate temporal component will be extracted and used. | |||
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| Choices from a Collection of Arbitrary Objects | |||
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| Choices from a Collection of Complex Objects | |||
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"Complex Objects" is a bit confusing to me, as I don't know what defines a complex object.
I think in all these cases the collections contain model objects, so maybe:
| Choices from a Collection of Complex Objects | |
| Choices from a Collection of Model Objects |
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I am open to rewording, but I was trying to avoid "model" (right here) because I didn't want the reader to assume that these helpers only work with Active Record or Active Model objects. (I realize the term "model" is more generic than that, but, in the context of Rails, there is a strong connotation of being one of those two.)
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Agreed, but I think in most cases it would be a collection of Active Record or Active Model objects anyway. Anyone that sees non Active Record/Model objects as models too will probably understand these objects can be used in the helpers as well.
The example uses an Active Record model as well.
I was trying to think of a non Active Record/Model object that could also be used instead (country?, locale?) but that wouldn't make the example any clearer I think.
Another option could be "Domain Objects" or removing it altogether:
| Choices from a Collection of Complex Objects | |
| Choices from a Collection of Objects |
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An array of strings is a "Collection of Objects" too. 😜
How does "Compound Objects" or "Composite Objects" sound to you?
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Well, you can pass arrays 😄 :
<%= form.collection_select :city_id, [[3, "Berlin"], [1, "Chicago"], [2, "Madrid"]], :first, :last %>
I'm not seeing how the following should be seen as a collection of "Compound Objects" or "Composite Objects":
<% Country = Struct.new(:country_code, :name) %>
<%= form.collection_select :country_code, [Country.new(:us, "United States"), Country.new(:jp, "Japan")], :country_code, :name %>
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To me "Arbitrary Objects" or just "Objects" is the clearest.
The API docs doesn't use any adjective either:
https://edgeapi.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/FormOptionsHelper.html#method-i-collection_select
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Ok, let's leave it as "Arbitrary Objects". Thank you, @p8! 😄
This fleshes out the "Choices from a Collection of Complex Objects" section a bit more, explicitly mentioning associations and proper field naming.
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…icitly-mention-associations Mention associations in Form Helpers guide [ci-skip] (cherry picked from commit 66d8f8c)
This fleshes out the "Choices from a Collection of Complex Objects" section a bit more, explicitly mentioning associations and proper field naming.
/cc @ghiculescu Does this address your concern from #39344 (comment)?