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radio buttons to display list of options - rails app

so i have this collection select to select a category of job:

<%= collection_select(:job, :category_id, Category.all, :id, :name, {:include_blank => '-select job type-'} ) %>

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instead i want to show the categories as a list of radio buttons a user can select rather than a drop down list.

kristinalim

Did you happen to mean check boxes?

If you take a look at the has_many method in the Rails API, a has_many association sets up Job#category_ids and Job#category_ids= for the job instance:

@job.category_ids # => [1, 2, 3]
@job.category_ids = [1] # => [1]

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So in your view you could do:

<% Category.all.each do |category| %>
<li>
  <%= check_box_tag 'job[category_ids][]', category.id, f.object.category_ids.include?(category.id) %>
  <%= category.name %>
</li>
<% end %>

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With check boxes, though, if no check box has been checked no data for that form name would be sent to the server. In your controller action, you would have to ensure the value passed for categories_id is an array:

# If no check box in the set has been checked
params[:job][:category_ids] # => nil

# Set to a blank array to catch these cases.
params[:job][:category_ids] ||= []
@job.update_attributes(params[:job])

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depassion

ASKER

i did actually mean radio button as in the category section here https://jobs.37signals.com/jobs/new, as only 1 category can be selected

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kristinalim

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depassion

ASKER

thanks