How to submit a string array in a form Rails 4.2

Question

I have a model message with a string array attribute recipients. Here's what my messages_controller.rb looks like:

def new
  @message = Message.new
  @message.attachments = params[:attachments]
end
def create
  @message = Message.new(create_params)
  @message.user_id = current_user.id
  @message.attachments = params[:message][:attachments]
  @message.recipients = params[:message][:recipients]
  save_message or render 'new'
end
private
  def create_params
    params.require(:message).permit(:object, :content,
                                  :recipients,
                                  :attachments)
  end

And the _fields.html.erb looks like this:

<%= render 'shared/error_messages', object: f.object %>
<%= f.label :object %>
<%= f.text_field :object, class: "form-control" %>
<%= f.label :recipients %>
<%= f.text_field :recipients, multiple: true, class: "form-control" %>
<%= f.label :attachments %><br>
<%= f.file_field :attachments, multiple: true, class: 'form-control' %><br />
<%= f.label :content %>
<%= f.text_area :content, class: "form-control" %>

The problem is that it saves the recipients array like this:

["recipient_1, recipient_2"]

instead of

["recipient_1", "recipient_2"]

I want to be able to retrieve recipient[0] = recipient_1 and not recipient[0] = whole array.

It's probably something simple, but I can't find the fix. All inputs appreciated. Thanks

Wes Foster · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-27 02:11:27Z

3

It is returning a single string because the input is a text field. If you want to utilize a text field for this then just expect that the input will be comma-separated and split the input:

@message.recipients = params[:message][:recipients].split(',')

# or, if it's wrapped in an array
# @message.recipients = params[:message][:recipients][0].split(',')

answered Jul 27, 2015 at 2:11

Wes Foster

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Comments

nextstep · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-27 02:24:59Z

1

Usually for permit you pass it a collection of :symbols. These keys must represent scalar values only. But arrays are represented differently by an empty array.

Try this:

def create_params
    params.require(:message).permit(:object,
                                    :content,
                                    :attachments,
                                    recipients: [])
end

And the field in your form:

<%= f.text_field_tag "recipients[]", :recipients, multiple: true, class: "form-control" %>

edited Jul 27, 2015 at 2:24

answered Jul 27, 2015 at 1:51

nextstep

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3 Comments

Ghost Over a year ago

thanks for the reply. I had to wrap it around a block {recipients: []} and it still gave me [["recipient_1, recipient_2"]]

Cyril Duchon-Doris Over a year ago

This tricky, but you actually have to put array declarations at the end of your permit parameters ! So in the above piece of code the :attachments is messing things up, because it is after the recipients declaration. Or maybe they fixed that in newest Rails version ?

nextstep Over a year ago

@CyrilDD Thanks for the catch, I didn't know that.

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