Module: ActionView::Helpers::FormOptionsHelper

Includes:
TextHelper
Included in:
ActionView::Helpers, InstanceTag
Defined in:
actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/form_options_helper.rb

Overview

Provides a number of methods for turning different kinds of containers into a set of option tags.

Options

The collection_select, select and time_zone_select methods take an options parameter, a hash:

  • :include_blank - set to true or a prompt string if the first option element of the select element is a blank. Useful if there is not a default value required for the select element.

For example,

select("post", "category", Post::CATEGORIES, {:include_blank => true})

could become:

<select name="post[category]">
  <option></option>
  <option>joke</option>
  <option>poem</option>
</select>

Another common case is a select tag for an belongs_to-associated object.

Example with @post.person_id => 2:

select("post", "person_id", Person.all.collect {|p| [ p.name, p.id ] }, {:include_blank => 'None'})

could become:

<select name="post[person_id]">
  <option value="">None</option>
  <option value="1">David</option>
  <option value="2" selected="selected">Sam</option>
  <option value="3">Tobias</option>
</select>

  • :prompt - set to true or a prompt string. When the select element doesn’t have a value yet, this prepends an option with a generic prompt – “Please select” – or the given prompt string.

Example:

select("post", "person_id", Person.all.collect {|p| [ p.name, p.id ] }, {:prompt => 'Select Person'})

could become:

<select name="post[person_id]">
  <option value="">Select Person</option>
  <option value="1">David</option>
  <option value="2">Sam</option>
  <option value="3">Tobias</option>
</select>

Like the other form helpers, select can accept an :index option to manually set the ID used in the resulting output. Unlike other helpers, select expects this option to be in the html_options parameter.

Example:

select("album[]", "genre", %w[rap rock country], {}, { :index => nil })

becomes:

<select name="album[][genre]" id="album__genre">
  <option value="rap">rap</option>
  <option value="rock">rock</option>
  <option value="country">country</option>
</select>

  • :disabled - can be a single value or an array of values that will be disabled options in the final output.

Example:

select("post", "category", Post::CATEGORIES, {:disabled => 'restricted'})

could become:

<select name="post[category]">
  <option></option>
  <option>joke</option>
  <option>poem</option>
  <option disabled="disabled">restricted</option>
</select>

When used with the collection_select helper, :disabled can also be a Proc that identifies those options that should be disabled.

Example:

collection_select(:post, :category_id, Category.all, :id, :name, {:disabled => lambda{|category| category.archived? }})

If the categories “2008 stuff” and “Christmas” return true when the method archived? is called, this would return:

<select name="post[category_id]">
  <option value="1" disabled="disabled">2008 stuff</option>
  <option value="2" disabled="disabled">Christmas</option>
  <option value="3">Jokes</option>
  <option value="4">Poems</option>
</select>

Constant Summary

Constants included from TagHelper

TagHelper::BOOLEAN_ATTRIBUTES, TagHelper::PRE_CONTENT_STRINGS

Instance Method Summary collapse

Methods included from TextHelper

#concat, #current_cycle, #cycle, #excerpt, #highlight, #pluralize, #reset_cycle, #safe_concat, #simple_format, #truncate, #word_wrap

Methods included from ActiveSupport::Concern

#append_features, extended, #included

Methods included from TagHelper

#cdata_section, #content_tag, #escape_once, #tag

Methods included from CaptureHelper

#capture, #content_for, #content_for?, #flush_output_buffer, #provide, #with_output_buffer

Methods included from SanitizeHelper

#sanitize, #sanitize_css, #strip_links, #strip_tags

Instance Method Details

#collection_select(object, method, collection, value_method, text_method, options = {}, html_options = {}) ⇒ Object

Returns <select> and <option> tags for the collection of existing return values of method for object‘s class. The value returned from calling method on the instance object will be selected. If calling method returns nil, no selection is made without including :prompt or :include_blank in the options hash.

The :value_method and :text_method parameters are methods to be called on each member of collection. The return values are used as the value attribute and contents of each <option> tag, respectively.

Example object structure for use with this method:

class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :author
end
class Author < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :posts
  def name_with_initial
    "#{first_name.first}. #{last_name}"
  end
end

Sample usage (selecting the associated Author for an instance of Post, @post):

collection_select(:post, :author_id, Author.all, :id, :name_with_initial, :prompt => true)

If @post.author_id is already 1, this would return:

<select name="post[author_id]">
  <option value="">Please select</option>
  <option value="1" selected="selected">D. Heinemeier Hansson</option>
  <option value="2">D. Thomas</option>
  <option value="3">M. Clark</option>
</select>



190
191
192
 
# File 'actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/form_options_helper.rb', line 190

def collection_select(object, method, collection, value_method, text_method, options = {}, html_options = {})
  InstanceTag.new(object, method, self, options.delete(:object)).to_collection_select_tag(collection, value_method, text_method, options, html_options)
end

#grouped_collection_select(object, method, collection, group_method, group_label_method, option_key_method, option_value_method, options = {}, html_options = {}) ⇒ Object

Returns <select>, <optgroup> and <option> tags for the collection of existing return values of method for object‘s class. The value returned from calling method on the instance object will be selected. If calling method returns nil, no selection is made without including :prompt or :include_blank in the options hash.

Parameters:

  • object - The instance of the class to be used for the select tag

  • method - The attribute of object corresponding to the select tag

  • collection - An array of objects representing the <optgroup> tags.

  • group_method - The name of a method which, when called on a member of collection, returns an array of child objects representing the <option> tags.

  • group_label_method - The name of a method which, when called on a member of collection, returns a string to be used as the label attribute for its <optgroup> tag.

  • option_key_method - The name of a method which, when called on a child object of a member of collection, returns a value to be used as the value attribute for its <option> tag.

  • option_value_method - The name of a method which, when called on a child object of a member of collection, returns a value to be used as the contents of its <option> tag.

Example object structure for use with this method:

class Continent < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :countries
  # attribs: id, name
end
class Country < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :continent
  # attribs: id, name, continent_id
end
class City < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :country
  # attribs: id, name, country_id
end

Sample usage:

grouped_collection_select(:city, :country_id, @continents, :countries, :name, :id, :name)

Possible output:

<select name="city[country_id]">
  <optgroup label="Africa">
    <option value="1">South Africa</option>
    <option value="3">Somalia</option>
  </optgroup>
  <optgroup label="Europe">
    <option value="7" selected="selected">Denmark</option>
    <option value="2">Ireland</option>
  </optgroup>
</select>



242
243
244
 
# File 'actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/form_options_helper.rb', line 242

def grouped_collection_select(object, method, collection, group_method, group_label_method, option_key_method, option_value_method, options = {}, html_options = {})
  InstanceTag.new(object, method, self, options.delete(:object)).to_grouped_collection_select_tag(collection, group_method, group_label_method, option_key_method, option_value_method, options, html_options)
end

#grouped_options_for_select(grouped_options, selected_key = nil, prompt = nil) ⇒ Object

Returns a string of <option> tags, like options_for_select, but wraps them with <optgroup> tags.

Parameters:

  • grouped_options - Accepts a nested array or hash of strings. The first value serves as the <optgroup> label while the second value must be an array of options. The second value can be a nested array of text-value pairs. See options_for_select for more info.

    Ex. ["North America",[["United States","US"],["Canada","CA"]]]

  • selected_key - A value equal to the value attribute for one of the <option> tags, which will have the selected attribute set. Note: It is possible for this value to match multiple options as you might have the same option in multiple groups. Each will then get selected="selected".

  • prompt - set to true or a prompt string. When the select element doesn’t have a value yet, this prepends an option with a generic prompt - “Please select” - or the given prompt string.

Sample usage (Array):

grouped_options = [
 ['North America',
   [['United States','US'],'Canada']],
 ['Europe',
   ['Denmark','Germany','France']]
]
grouped_options_for_select(grouped_options)

Sample usage (Hash):

grouped_options = {
 'North America' => [['United States','US'], 'Canada'],
 'Europe' => ['Denmark','Germany','France']
}
grouped_options_for_select(grouped_options)

Possible output:

<optgroup label="Europe">
  <option value="Denmark">Denmark</option>
  <option value="Germany">Germany</option>
  <option value="France">France</option>
</optgroup>
<optgroup label="North America">
  <option value="US">United States</option>
  <option value="Canada">Canada</option>
</optgroup>

Note: Only the <optgroup> and <option> tags are returned, so you still have to wrap the output in an appropriate <select> tag.



473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
 
# File 'actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/form_options_helper.rb', line 473

def grouped_options_for_select(grouped_options, selected_key = nil, prompt = nil)
  body = ''
  body << content_tag(:option, prompt, { :value => "" }, true) if prompt

  grouped_options = grouped_options.sort if grouped_options.is_a?(Hash)

  grouped_options.each do |group|
    body << content_tag(:optgroup, options_for_select(group[1], selected_key), :label => group[0])
  end

  body.html_safe
end

#option_groups_from_collection_for_select(collection, group_method, group_label_method, option_key_method, option_value_method, selected_key = nil) ⇒ Object

Returns a string of <option> tags, like options_from_collection_for_select, but groups them by <optgroup> tags based on the object relationships of the arguments.

Parameters:

  • collection - An array of objects representing the <optgroup> tags.

  • group_method - The name of a method which, when called on a member of collection, returns an array of child objects representing the <option> tags.

  • group_label_method+ - The name of a method which, when called on a member of collection, returns a string to be used as the label attribute for its <optgroup> tag.

  • option_key_method - The name of a method which, when called on a child object of a member of collection, returns a value to be used as the value attribute for its <option> tag.

  • option_value_method - The name of a method which, when called on a child object of a member of collection, returns a value to be used as the contents of its <option> tag.

  • selected_key - A value equal to the value attribute for one of the <option> tags, which will have the selected attribute set. Corresponds to the return value of one of the calls to option_key_method. If nil, no selection is made. Can also be a hash if disabled values are to be specified.

Example object structure for use with this method:

class Continent < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :countries
  # attribs: id, name
end
class Country < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :continent
  # attribs: id, name, continent_id
end

Sample usage:

option_groups_from_collection_for_select(@continents, :countries, :name, :id, :name, 3)

Possible output:

<optgroup label="Africa">
  <option value="1">Egypt</option>
  <option value="4">Rwanda</option>
  ...
</optgroup>
<optgroup label="Asia">
  <option value="3" selected="selected">China</option>
  <option value="12">India</option>
  <option value="5">Japan</option>
  ...
</optgroup>

Note: Only the <optgroup> and <option> tags are returned, so you still have to wrap the output in an appropriate <select> tag.



421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
 
# File 'actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/form_options_helper.rb', line 421

def option_groups_from_collection_for_select(collection, group_method, group_label_method, option_key_method, option_value_method, selected_key = nil)
  collection.map do |group|
    group_label_string = eval("group.#{group_label_method}")
    "<optgroup label=\"#{ERB::Util.html_escape(group_label_string)}\">" +
      options_from_collection_for_select(eval("group.#{group_method}"), option_key_method, option_value_method, selected_key) +
      '</optgroup>'
  end.join.html_safe
end

#options_for_select(container, selected = nil) ⇒ Object

Accepts a container (hash, array, enumerable, your type) and returns a string of option tags. Given a container where the elements respond to first and last (such as a two-element array), the “lasts” serve as option values and the “firsts” as option text. Hashes are turned into this form automatically, so the keys become “firsts” and values become lasts. If selected is specified, the matching “last” or element will get the selected option-tag. selected may also be an array of values to be selected when using a multiple select.

Examples (call, result):

options_for_select([["Dollar", "$"], ["Kroner", "DKK"]])
  <option value="$">Dollar</option>\n<option value="DKK">Kroner</option>

options_for_select([ "VISA", "MasterCard" ], "MasterCard")
  <option>VISA</option>\n<option selected="selected">MasterCard</option>

options_for_select({ "Basic" => "$20", "Plus" => "$40" }, "$40")
  <option value="$20">Basic</option>\n<option value="$40" selected="selected">Plus</option>

options_for_select([ "VISA", "MasterCard", "Discover" ], ["VISA", "Discover"])
  <option selected="selected">VISA</option>\n<option>MasterCard</option>\n<option selected="selected">Discover</option>

You can optionally provide html attributes as the last element of the array.

Examples:

options_for_select([ "Denmark", ["USA", {:class => 'bold'}], "Sweden" ], ["USA", "Sweden"])
  <option value="Denmark">Denmark</option>\n<option value="USA" class="bold" selected="selected">USA</option>\n<option value="Sweden" selected="selected">Sweden</option>

options_for_select([["Dollar", "$", {:class => "bold"}], ["Kroner", "DKK", {:onclick => "alert('HI');"}]])
  <option value="$" class="bold">Dollar</option>\n<option value="DKK" onclick="alert('HI');">Kroner</option>

If you wish to specify disabled option tags, set selected to be a hash, with :disabled being either a value or array of values to be disabled. In this case, you can use :selected to specify selected option tags.

Examples:

options_for_select(["Free", "Basic", "Advanced", "Super Platinum"], :disabled => "Super Platinum")
  <option value="Free">Free</option>\n<option value="Basic">Basic</option>\n<option value="Advanced">Advanced</option>\n<option value="Super Platinum" disabled="disabled">Super Platinum</option>

options_for_select(["Free", "Basic", "Advanced", "Super Platinum"], :disabled => ["Advanced", "Super Platinum"])
  <option value="Free">Free</option>\n<option value="Basic">Basic</option>\n<option value="Advanced" disabled="disabled">Advanced</option>\n<option value="Super Platinum" disabled="disabled">Super Platinum</option>

options_for_select(["Free", "Basic", "Advanced", "Super Platinum"], :selected => "Free", :disabled => "Super Platinum")
  <option value="Free" selected="selected">Free</option>\n<option value="Basic">Basic</option>\n<option value="Advanced">Advanced</option>\n<option value="Super Platinum" disabled="disabled">Super Platinum</option>

NOTE: Only the option tags are returned, you have to wrap this call in a regular HTML select tag.



322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
 
# File 'actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/form_options_helper.rb', line 322

def options_for_select(container, selected = nil)
  return container if String === container

  selected, disabled = extract_selected_and_disabled(selected).map do | r |
     Array.wrap(r).map { |item| item.to_s }
  end

  container.map do |element|
    html_attributes = option_html_attributes(element)
    text, value = option_text_and_value(element).map { |item| item.to_s }
    selected_attribute = ' selected="selected"' if option_value_selected?(value, selected)
    disabled_attribute = ' disabled="disabled"' if disabled && option_value_selected?(value, disabled)
    %(<option value="#{ERB::Util.html_escape(value)}"#{selected_attribute}#{disabled_attribute}#{html_attributes}>#{ERB::Util.html_escape(text)}</option>)
  end.join("\n").html_safe

end

#options_from_collection_for_select(collection, value_method, text_method, selected = nil) ⇒ Object

Returns a string of option tags that have been compiled by iterating over the collection and assigning the result of a call to the value_method as the option value and the text_method as the option text. Example:

options_from_collection_for_select(@people, 'id', 'name')

This will output the same HTML as if you did this:

<option value="#{person.id}">#{person.name}</option>

This is more often than not used inside a #select_tag like this example:

select_tag 'person', options_from_collection_for_select(@people, 'id', 'name')

If selected is specified as a value or array of values, the element(s) returning a match on value_method will be selected option tag(s).

If selected is specified as a Proc, those members of the collection that return true for the anonymous function are the selected values.

selected can also be a hash, specifying both :selected and/or :disabled values as required.

Be sure to specify the same class as the value_method when specifying selected or disabled options. Failure to do this will produce undesired results. Example:

options_from_collection_for_select(@people, 'id', 'name', '1')

Will not select a person with the id of 1 because 1 (an Integer) is not the same as ‘1’ (a string)

options_from_collection_for_select(@people, 'id', 'name', 1)

should produce the desired results.



363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
 
# File 'actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/form_options_helper.rb', line 363

def options_from_collection_for_select(collection, value_method, text_method, selected = nil)
  options = collection.map do |element|
    [element.send(text_method), element.send(value_method)]
  end
  selected, disabled = extract_selected_and_disabled(selected)
  select_deselect = {}
  select_deselect[:selected] = extract_values_from_collection(collection, value_method, selected)
  select_deselect[:disabled] = extract_values_from_collection(collection, value_method, disabled)

  options_for_select(options, select_deselect)
end

#select(object, method, choices, options = {}, html_options = {}) ⇒ Object

Create a select tag and a series of contained option tags for the provided object and method. The option currently held by the object will be selected, provided that the object is available.

There are two possible formats for the choices parameter, corresponding to other helpers’ output:

* A flat collection: see options_for_select
* A nested collection: see grouped_options_for_select

Example with @post.person_id => 1:

select("post", "person_id", Person.all.collect {|p| [ p.name, p.id ] }, { :include_blank => true })

could become:

<select name="post[person_id]">
  <option value=""></option>
  <option value="1" selected="selected">David</option>
  <option value="2">Sam</option>
  <option value="3">Tobias</option>
</select>

This can be used to provide a default set of options in the standard way: before rendering the create form, a new model instance is assigned the default options and bound to @model_name. Usually this model is not saved to the database. Instead, a second model object is created when the create request is received. This allows the user to submit a form page more than once with the expected results of creating multiple records. In addition, this allows a single partial to be used to generate form inputs for both edit and create forms.

By default, post.person_id is the selected option. Specify :selected => value to use a different selection or :selected => nil to leave all options unselected. Similarly, you can specify values to be disabled in the option tags by specifying the :disabled option. This can either be a single value or an array of values to be disabled.

Gotcha

The HTML specification says when multiple parameter passed to select and all options got deselected web browsers do not send any value to server. Unfortunately this introduces a gotcha: if an User model has many roles and have role_ids accessor, and in the form that edits roles of the user the user deselects all roles from role_ids multiple select box, no role_ids parameter is sent. So, any mass-assignment idiom like

@user.update_attributes(params[:user])

wouldn’t update roles.

To prevent this the helper generates an auxiliary hidden field before every multiple select. The hidden field has the same name as multiple select and blank value.

This way, the client either sends only the hidden field (representing the deselected multiple select box), or both fields. Since the HTML specification says key/value pairs have to be sent in the same order they appear in the form, and parameters extraction gets the last occurrence of any repeated key in the query string, that works for ordinary forms.



156
157
158
 
# File 'actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/form_options_helper.rb', line 156

def select(object, method, choices, options = {}, html_options = {})
  InstanceTag.new(object, method, self, options.delete(:object)).to_select_tag(choices, options, html_options)
end

#time_zone_options_for_select(selected = nil, priority_zones = nil, model = ::ActiveSupport::TimeZone) ⇒ Object

Returns a string of option tags for pretty much any time zone in the world. Supply a ActiveSupport::TimeZone name as selected to have it marked as the selected option tag. You can also supply an array of ActiveSupport::TimeZone objects as priority_zones, so that they will be listed above the rest of the (long) list. (You can use ActiveSupport::TimeZone.us_zones as a convenience for obtaining a list of the US time zones, or a Regexp to select the zones of your choice)

The selected parameter must be either nil, or a string that names a ActiveSupport::TimeZone.

By default, model is the ActiveSupport::TimeZone constant (which can be obtained in Active Record as a value object). The only requirement is that the model parameter be an object that responds to all, and returns an array of objects that represent time zones.

NOTE: Only the option tags are returned, you have to wrap this call in a regular HTML select tag.



504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
 
# File 'actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/form_options_helper.rb', line 504

def time_zone_options_for_select(selected = nil, priority_zones = nil, model = ::ActiveSupport::TimeZone)
  zone_options = ""

  zones = model.all
  convert_zones = lambda { |list| list.map { |z| [ z.to_s, z.name ] } }

  if priority_zones
   if priority_zones.is_a?(Regexp)
      priority_zones = model.all.find_all {|z| z =~ priority_zones}
   end
    zone_options += options_for_select(convert_zones[priority_zones], selected)
    zone_options += "<option value=\"\" disabled=\"disabled\">-------------</option>\n"

    zones = zones.reject { |z| priority_zones.include?( z ) }
  end

  zone_options += options_for_select(convert_zones[zones], selected)
  zone_options.html_safe
end

#time_zone_select(object, method, priority_zones = nil, options = {}, html_options = {}) ⇒ Object

Return select and option tags for the given object and method, using #time_zone_options_for_select to generate the list of option tags.

In addition to the :include_blank option documented above, this method also supports a :model option, which defaults to ActiveSupport::TimeZone. This may be used by users to specify a different time zone model object. (See time_zone_options_for_select for more information.)

You can also supply an array of ActiveSupport::TimeZone objects as priority_zones, so that they will be listed above the rest of the (long) list. (You can use ActiveSupport::TimeZone.us_zones as a convenience for obtaining a list of the US time zones, or a Regexp to select the zones of your choice)

Finally, this method supports a :default option, which selects a default ActiveSupport::TimeZone if the object’s time zone is nil.

Examples:

time_zone_select( "user", "time_zone", nil, :include_blank => true)

time_zone_select( "user", "time_zone", nil, :default => "Pacific Time (US & Canada)" )

time_zone_select( "user", 'time_zone', ActiveSupport::TimeZone.us_zones, :default => "Pacific Time (US & Canada)")

time_zone_select( "user", 'time_zone', [ ActiveSupport::TimeZone['Alaska'], ActiveSupport::TimeZone['Hawaii'] ])

time_zone_select( "user", 'time_zone', /Australia/)

time_zone_select( "user", "time_zone", ActiveSupport::TimeZone.all.sort, :model => ActiveSupport::TimeZone)



276
277
278
 
# File 'actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/form_options_helper.rb', line 276

def time_zone_select(object, method, priority_zones = nil, options = {}, html_options = {})
  InstanceTag.new(object, method, self,  options.delete(:object)).to_time_zone_select_tag(priority_zones, options, html_options)
end