Ruby-on-rails – How to create multiple submit buttons for the same form in Rails

form-submitrubyruby-on-rails

I need to have multiple submit buttons.

I have a form which creates an instance of Contact_Call.

One button creates it as normal.

The other button creates it but needs to have a different :attribute value from the default, and it also needs to set the attribute on a different, but related model used in the controller.

How do I do that? I can't change the route, so is there a way to send a different variable that gets picked up by [:params]?

And if I do then, what do I do in the controller, set up a case statement?

Best Answer

You can create multiple submit buttons and provide a different value to each:

<% form_for(something) do |f| %>
    ..
    <%= f.submit 'A' %>
    <%= f.submit 'B' %>
    ..
<% end %>

This will output:

<input type="submit" value="A" id=".." name="commit" />
<input type="submit" value="B" id=".." name="commit" />

Inside your controller, the submitted button's value will be identified by the parameter commit. Check the value to do the required processing:

def <controller action>
    if params[:commit] == 'A'
        # A was pressed 
    elsif params[:commit] == 'B'
        # B was pressed
    end
end

However, remember that this tightly couples your view to the controller which may not be very desirable.

Related Solutions

Html – Multiple submit buttons in an HTML form

I'm just doing the trick of floating the buttons to the right.

This way the Prev button is left of the Next button, but the Next comes first in the HTML structure:

.f {
  float: right;
}
.clr {
  clear: both;
}

<form action="action" method="get">
  <input type="text" name="abc">
  <div id="buttons">
    <input type="submit" class="f" name="next" value="Next">
    <input type="submit" class="f" name="prev" value="Prev">
    <div class="clr"></div><!-- This div prevents later elements from floating with the buttons. Keeps them 'inside' div#buttons -->
  </div>
</form>

Benefits over other suggestions: no JavaScript code, accessible, and both buttons remain type="submit".

C# – How to handle multiple submit buttons in ASP.NET MVC Framework

Here is a mostly clean attribute-based solution to the multiple submit button issue based heavily on the post and comments from Maarten Balliauw.

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Method, AllowMultiple = false, Inherited = true)]
public class MultipleButtonAttribute : ActionNameSelectorAttribute
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Argument { get; set; }

    public override bool IsValidName(ControllerContext controllerContext, string actionName, MethodInfo methodInfo)
    {
        var isValidName = false;
        var keyValue = string.Format("{0}:{1}", Name, Argument);
        var value = controllerContext.Controller.ValueProvider.GetValue(keyValue);

        if (value != null)
        {
            controllerContext.Controller.ControllerContext.RouteData.Values[Name] = Argument;
            isValidName = true;
        }

        return isValidName;
    }
}

razor:

<form action="" method="post">
 <input type="submit" value="Save" name="action:Save" />
 <input type="submit" value="Cancel" name="action:Cancel" />
</form>

and controller:

[HttpPost]
[MultipleButton(Name = "action", Argument = "Save")]
public ActionResult Save(MessageModel mm) { ... }

[HttpPost]
[MultipleButton(Name = "action", Argument = "Cancel")]
public ActionResult Cancel(MessageModel mm) { ... }

Update: Razor pages looks to provide the same functionality out of the box. For new development, it may be preferable.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Html – Multiple submit buttons in an HTML form

C# – How to handle multiple submit buttons in ASP.NET MVC Framework

Related Topic