Use Javascript to generate Rails Text Array

Question

I am attempting to write some JavaScript that allows a user to enter a zip code one at a time and build up an array that will be submitted to a Rails app.

Here are the relevant pieces:

Controller.rb - Params

    {:zipcodes => []}

Schema.rb

    t.text     "zipcodes",       default: [],              array: true

html.erb The javascript updates the value of a hidden element

    <%= f.hidden_field :zipcodes, id:"zipcodes-hidden-tag", name:"provider[zipcodes]" %>

js.erb file

    //Adding a zipcode
     var array = []; 
     $("#addZipcode").click(

    function addZipcode() {

        x = $("#newZipcode").val();  // gets the zipcode entered by the user
        array.push(x);
        $("#zipcode_div").text(array);  // updates a div so the user can see the data entered
        $("#newZipcode").val("");  //clear the zipcode box after submitting
        $("#zipcodes-hidden-tag").val("[" + '"",' + '"' + array.join('","') + '"' + "]");  //puts the brackets, empty quote block, and quotes around the elements and updates the hidden field value
    }); //Adding a zipcode

This is how it looks in the Rails console when it is successful (using a multi-select field):

    "provider"=>{"zipcodes"=>["", "90210", "90211", "90212"],

When using the Javascript generated array, I can see the following value getting passed to Rails which is the correct formatting

    ["","90210","90211","90212"]

But in the Rails console, it's coming through like this:

   "provider"=>{"zipcodes"=>"[\"\",\"90210\",\"90211\",\"90212\"]"

And Rails is stating

    Unpermitted parameter: zipcodes

I feel like there are two problems at play here. An extra set of quotes are getting added to the beginning and end of the brackets:

    "[  ...   ]"

And the double quotes are getting converted into literals with the back slashes.

Any thoughts on what I need to change to get this to work?

Thanks!

Can you post the full controller code?

Pavan
– Pavan

2015-09-16 04:57:43 +00:00
Commented Sep 16, 2015 at 4:57 — Pavan
– Pavan, Commented Sep 16, 2015 at 4:57

ahmacleod · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-17 00:41:06Z

1

The output from the console,

"provider"=>{"zipcodes"=>"[\"\",\"90210\",\"90211\",\"90212\"]"

is exactly what you should expect. Your javascript code encodes the array as a string and submits it through a hidden field, so params[:provider][:zipcodes] is a string in your controller. In order to assign it to your model, you'll need to do something like

provider.zipcodes = JSON.parse(params[:provider][:zipcodes])

The Unpermitted parameter: zipcodes message is most likely because you are mass-assigning to your model without whitelisting or removing the zipcodes key from your params hash.

Edit:

To get around the strong parameters, try deleting the zipcodes key.

provider.zipcodes = JSON.parse(params[:provider].delete(:zipcodes))

safe_params = params.require(:provider).permit(:any, :other, :fields)
provider.update!(safe_params)

edited Sep 17, 2015 at 0:41

answered Sep 16, 2015 at 5:04

ahmacleod

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2 Comments

David Over a year ago

Thanks, that's what I was missing. I still get the 'Unpermitted parameter: zipcodes' in the console but it's saving to the DB. I changed the permit entry to just ':zipcodes' and removed it completely but all 3 have the same result. I'm not sure what's going on there at the moment.

David Over a year ago

I added this line to the controller: @provider.zipcodes = JSON.parse(params[:provider].delete(:zipcodes)) in both the Create and Update methods and removed :zipcodes from the params list. The error went away on the Update but still says Unpermitted parameter: zipcodes during the Create action. The values are still saving to the DB though so I'm not going to worry about this too much now. Thanks again!

Surya · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-16 06:45:31Z

0

Instead of this line:

$("#zipcodes-hidden-tag").val("[" + '"",' + '"' + array.join('","') + '"' + "]");

if you change it to:

$("#zipcodes-hidden-tag").val('"' + array.join('","'));

then you will have values as: "979794,297942,24444"

Which would make it super easy to convert into an array in your controller:

params[:provider][:zipcodes].split(',') 
#=> ["979794", "297942", "24444"]

Which can be:

params[:provider][:zipcodes] = params[:provider][:zipcodes].split(',')

answered Sep 16, 2015 at 6:45

Surya

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