Section 3.4. Ajax Forms


3.4. Ajax Forms

To Ajaxify this form, all we need to do is replace the form_tag helper with its form_remote_tag alternative and add a place for the response to be inserted:

<%= form_remote_tag :update => "reversed",                     :url    => { :action => 'reverse' } %>   <p>Text to reverse: <%= text_field_tag 'text_to_reverse' %></p>   <p ></p>   <p><%= submit_tag 'Reverse!' %></p> <%= end_form_tag %>

The options here should look familiar, because they're exactly the same as the options for link_to_remote. The :update option specifies which HTML element will be updated with the Ajax response, and :url provides the URL for the Ajax request. Try out the new form, and you'll get something like Figure 3-5. As you can see, that won't do.

Figure 3-5. Oops, that's not right


The layout is being rendered twice, heading and all. The problem is that every action (such as our reverse) will render within layouts/application.rhtml unless told otherwise. To specify a layout (or turn them off), the action needs an explicit render statement:

def reverse   @reversed_text = params[:text_to_reverse].reverse   render :layout => false end

With that line added, try the Ajax form again, and everything should work as expected, as seen in Figure 3-6.

Figure 3-6. Rendered without layout


The rendered result of the form_remote_tag uses Prototype's Ajax.Updater, just like link_to_remote did:

<form action="/chapter3/reverse" method="post"     onsubmit="new Ajax.Updater('reversed','/chapter3/reverse',      {asynchronous:true, evalScripts:true,       parameters:Form.serialize(this)});      return false;">

Just as the onclick attribute hijacks a link, onsubmit hijacks the behavior of forms.

The Ajax counterpart to form_for (the helper for creating forms to work with model objects) is remote_form_for. Using it works exactly like form_for, except that the options hash may also contain the usual Ajax options, such as :update and :complete.




Ajax on Rails
Ajax on Rails
ISBN: 0596527446
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 103
Authors: Scott Raymond

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