Finishing the Add Book Story for a Book Inventory Management System

Changing the View

Next, we will use thecollection_selectview helper to generate the drop-down list for publishers. The format for thecollection_selecthelper is as follows:

<%= collection_select :book, :publisher_id, @publishers, :id, :name %>

The first and second parameters tell the helper to which model and attribute to bind the field. The third parameter is used to pass a list of publishers that should be shown in the drop-down list. The two last parameters,:idand:name, are used to specify that the value for the drop-down list should be the publisher’sidand that the label should be the publisher’s name.

select_tagis used for generating a list of authors from which George can select one or more authors. The format for this helper is as follows:

<%= select_tag 'book[author_ids][]',
options_from_collection_for_select(@authors, :id, :name,➥@book.authors.collect{|author| author.id}),
{ :multiple => true, :size => 5 }
%>

select_taghas the following parameters:

1. The first parameter,book[author_ids][], specifies to which attribute the field should be bound. Note that the parameter must end with[]so that Rails knows that the attribute it needs to bind the value to is an array.
   
2. The second parameter,options_from_collection_for_select, is used for generating the list of options that should be shown in the list. This method’s first parameter is a collection of authors. The method’s second and third parameters,:idand:name, specify the attributes that should be used as the value and label, respectively. The fourth parameter is used for preselecting the authors that have been assigned to the book.
   
3. The third parameter of theselect_tagis used for specifying options. In this case, we specify that the list should support multiple-selections and that five authors should be shown.

Next, change theapp/views/admin/book/_form.rhtmlfile as follows:

<%= error_messages_for 'book' %>

<p><label for="book_title">Title</label><br/>
<%= text_field 'book', 'title' %></p>

<p><label for="book_publisher">Publisher</label><br/>
<%= collection_select :book, :publisher_id, @publishers, :id, :name %></p>

<p><label for="book[author_ids][]">Authors</label><br/>
<%= select_tag 'book[author_ids][]',
options_from_collection_for_select(@authors, :id, :name, ➥
@book.authors.collect{|author| author.id}),
{ :multiple => true, :size => 5 }
%>
</p>

<p><label for="book_published_at">Published at</label><br/>
<%= datetime_select 'book', 'published_at' %></p>

<p><label for="book_isbn">Isbn</label><br/>
<%= text_field 'book', 'isbn' %></p>

<p><label for="book_blurb">Blurb</label><br/>
<%= text_area 'book', 'blurb' %></p>

<p><label for="book_price">Price</label><br/>
<%= text_field 'book', 'price' %></p>

<p><label for="book_price">Page count</label><br/>
<%= text_field 'book', 'page_count' %></p>

Notice that we use thetext_field, collection_select,select_tag,datetime_select, andtext_areahelpers for creating the fields. You can test the Add Book user story by first adding a couple of authors and publishers to the database, either through the user interface we created earlier or by executing the following from the console:

$ script/console

--------------------------------------------
Loading development environment.
>> Publisher.create(:name => 'Apress')
>> Author.create(:first_name => 'Salman', :last_name => 'Rushdie')
>> Author.create(:first_name => 'Joel', :last_name => 'Spolsky')
--------------------------------------------

Then, openhttp://localhost:3000/admin/book/newin your browser. You should see a page that looks similar to Figure 3-7.

Figure 3-7. The add book page with publishers and authors

You should be able to add books to the system by entering all valid information. If you forget to enter something in a required field, you should see validation errors similar to those shown in Figure 3-8.

Figure 3-8. Validation errors

Next: Updating the Integration Test >>
 

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