Tag: html

A common pattern in one of our web applications is the management of a list of items in a web form where the user can add, remove and edit multiple items and finally submit the data:

The basic skeleton for this type of functionality is very simple with Angular.js. We have an Angular controller with an “items” array:

angular.module('example', [])
  .controller('ItemController', ['$scope', function($scope) {
    $scope.items = [];
  }]);

And we have an HTML form bound to our Angular controller:

<form ... ng-app="example" ng-controller="ItemController"> 
  <table>
    <tr>
      <th></th>
      <th>Name</th>
      <th>Value</th>
    </tr>
    <tr ng-repeat="item in items track by $index">
      <td><span class="remove-button" ng-click="items.splice($index, 1)"></span></td>
      <td><input type="text" ng-model="item.name"></td>
      <td><input type="text" ng-model="item.value"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="3">
        <span class="add-button" ng-click="items.push({})"></span>
      </td>
    </tr>
  </table>
  <!-- ... submit button etc. -->
</form>

The input fields for each item are placed in a table row, together with a remove button per row. At the end of the table there is an add button.

How do we connect this with a Rails model, so that existing items are filled into the form, and items are created, updated and deleted on submit?

First you have to transform the existing Ruby objects of your has-many association (in this example @foo.items) into JavaScript objects by converting them to JSON and assigning them to a variable:

<%= javascript_tag do %>
  var items = <%= escape_javascript @foo.items.to_json.html_safe %>;
<% end %>

Bring this data into your Angular controller scope by assigning it to a property of $scope:

.controller('ItemController', ['$scope', function($scope) {
  $scope.items = items;
}]);

Name the input fields according to Rails conventions and use the $index variable from the “ng-repeat” directive to provide the correct index value. You also need a hidden input field for the id, if the item already has one:

  <td>
    <input name="foo[items_attributes][$index][id]" type="hidden" ng-value="item.id" ng-if="item.id">
    <input name="foo[items_attributes][$index][name]" type="text" ng-model="item.name">
  </td>
  <td>
    <input name="foo[items_attributes][$index][value]" type="text" ng-model="item.value">
  </td>

In order for Rails to remove existing elements from a has-many association via submitted form data, a special attribute named “_destroy” must be set for each item to be removed. This only works if

accepts_nested_attributes_for :items, allow_destroy: true

is set in the Rails model class, which contains the has-many association.

We modify the click handler of the remove button to set a flag on the JavaScript object instead of removing it from the JavaScript items array:

<span class="remove-button" ng-click="item.removed = true"></span>

And we render an item only if the flag is not set by adding an “ng-if” directive:

<tr ng-repeat="item in items track by $index" ng-if="!item.removed">

At the end of the form we render hidden input fields for those items, which are flagged as removed and which already have an id:

<div style="display: none" ng-repeat="item in items track by $index"
ng-if="item.removed && item.id">
  <input type="hidden" name="foo[items_attributes][$index][id]" ng-value="item.id">
  <input type="hidden" name="foo[items_attributes][$index][_destroy]" value="1">
</div>

On submit Rails will delete those elements of the has-many association with the “_destroy” attribute set to “1”. The other elements will be either updated (if they have an id attribute set) or created (if they have no id attribute set).