HABTM population from text fields

Question posted by: ToBeAnnounced (Newbie) on March 21st, 2008 01:01 PM

Hi. I'm having problems wrapping my head around the use of HABTM. I just
haven't found a good enough reference for dealing with HABTM-linked
models, and my business logic is full of them.

In this case, I have a model Initative and a model called Reference for
associating one or more reference documents to an Initative. Any
Reference document could also be referenced by any number of Initatives.
So Initative has objects/columns Initative_ID and also Ref_Num:String.
I have declared HABTM in each model.

I need a straighforward way for a user to enter associated documents
from the context of an Initative record form. I would think that an
editable dropdown would be one way, which would allow the user to select
a Reference already in the database or allow them to enter a new one. I
also would settle for some version of a text field or text area with a
"Add Reference" button. I would even consider a popup form with some
version of these controls.

Being that all of the HABTM references I have seen seem to be really
checkbox-focused, I haven't really seen anything that gives me a good
idea how to go about this. I have done similar things in Access and
Notes, but can't quite figure out the HABTM syntax well enough to do it
in Rails.

Not the answer you were looking for? Post your question . . .
182,256 Experts ready to help you find a solution.
Sign up for a free account, or Login (if you're already a member).