Rails - How to validate Form with Nested Attributes?

Question

I am creating a nested form with attributes from different models. I expect all the required attributes to be valid, before a new object is saved.

<%= form for @product do |f| %>

  <%= f.fields_for @customer do |g| %>

    <%= g.label :name %>
    <%= g.text_field :name %>

    <%= g.label :email %>
    <%= g.text_field :email %>

    <%= g.label :city %>
    <%= g.text_field :city %>

    <%= g.label :state %>
    <%= g.text_field :state %>

    <%= g.label :zipcode %>
    <%= g.text_field :zipcode %>

  <% end %>

  <%= f.label :product %>
  <%= f.text_field :product %>

  <%= f.label :quantity %>
  <%= number_field(:quantity, in 1..10) %>

<% end %>

Here are my models

class Product < ActiveRecord::Base

  belongs_to :customer
  validates_associated :customer
  validates :product, :presence => "true"

end

class Customer < ActiveRecord::Base

  has_one :product
  validates :name, :email, presence: true
  validates :email, format: { with: /[A-Za-z\d+][@][A-Za-z\d+][.][A-Za-z]{2,20}\z/ }              
  validates :city, presence: true
  validates :zipcode, format: { with: /\A\d{5}\z/ }

end

I added validates_associated to my Product Model, so my form_for @product should require all the customer validations to pass. That means name, email, city and zipcode have to be there and have to be formatted properly.

I fiddled around, and submitted the form without filling in the Customer required fields, and the form was considered valid.

I don't understand where my mistake is.

EDIT

Alright, so by adding validates :customer, the customer attributes are now required. But they aren't actually saved to the database. I think this has to do with my params

def product_params
  params.require(:product).permit(:product, :quantity)
end

Do I need to add my Customer Params to my permitted params list?

Charles Treatman · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-03 14:20:16Z

4

The validates_associated method only validates the associated object if the object exists, so if you leave the form fields blank, the Product you are creating/editing will validate, because there is no associated Customer.

Instead, assuming you're using Rails 4+, you want to use accepts_nested_attributes_for :customer, along with validates :customer, presence: true in order to required the customer fields in your product form.

If you're using Rails 3, then accepts_nested_attributes_for will not work for a belongs_to association. Instead, your Customer class will need to use accepts_nested_attributes_for :product, and you will need to alter your form view accordingly.

UPDATE

You also need to allow your controller action to accept parameters for the :customer association:

def product_params
  params.require(:product).permit(:product, :quantity, :customer_attributes => [:name, :email, :city, :state, :zipcode])
end

It's worth noting that because there is no :id field in your customer form fields, and no :customer_id field in your product form fields, you will create a new customer every time you successfully submit the product form.

edited Dec 3, 2014 at 14:20

answered Dec 3, 2014 at 4:04

Charles Treatman

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1 Comment

Darkmouse Over a year ago

OK, I tried adding validates :customer and now that field is required. But when I type in the field, it says it's missing. It must be because of my params. I'll see if I can fix that

Sachin Singh · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-03 04:05:05Z

try this out:

In Controller create an instance of a product and associated customer as follows:

  @product = Product.new
  @customer = @product.build_customer

in use this code for form

  <%= form for @product do |f| %>

  <%= f.fields_for :customer do |g| %>

    <%= g.label :name %>
    <%= g.text_field :name %>

    <%= g.label :email %>
    <%= g.text_field :email %>

    <%= g.label :city %>
    <%= g.text_field :city %>

    <%= g.label :state %>
    <%= g.text_field :state %>

    <%= g.label :zipcode %>
    <%= g.text_field :zipcode %>

  <% end %>

  <%= f.label :product %>
  <%= f.text_field :product %>

  <%= f.label :quantity %>
  <%= number_field(:quantity, in 1..10) %>

<% end %>

i.e use :customer symbol instead of @customer instance variable.

and use accepts_nested_attributes_for helper method in Product model as @Charles said

Juanse Cora · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-11 03:10:44Z

Complementing the other answers, I control what I receive in the controller, avoiding further action and noticing if a value is not the one I want.

  def update
    if params[:customer][:product_attributes]["0"][:name] == ""
      redirect_to customer_path(@incident), alert: 'You need to add a name'
    else
      respond_to do |format|
        if @customer.update(customer_params)
          format.html { redirect_to customer_path(@customer), notice: 'Succesfully updated' }
          format.json { render :show, status: :ok, location: @customer }
        else
          format.html { render :edit }
          format.json { render json: @customer.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
        end
      end
    end
  end

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