DynamicSelectable

DynamicSelectable is a Rails gem that allows you to easily create collection_select fields with results that dynamically populate a related field. The dynamic population occurs with the help of the jQuery library jquery-dynamic-selectable written by Andrey Koleshko.

How about a use case? Let's say your application allowed users to look up parts for their vehicle. A user selecting their car's model might include the following:

1. User selects the Make of their vehicle
2. The Model field is populated with models of the selected Make
3. User selects the Model of their vehicle

DynamicSelectable makes the above easy to do by providing a generator for your dynamic collection_select along with a new FormHelper method called dynamic_collection_select.

To see this gem in action, you can check out the sample application here.

Warning: If you are updating from 0.0.2 you will need to re-generate any content created with rails generate dynamic_selectable:select.

Add the following line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'dynamic_selectable', git: 'https://github.com/moorem/dynamic_selectable.git'

Install the gem by running bundle install.

Run the gem's install generator:

$ rails generate dynamic_selectable:install

If you are using Devise for user authentication, you will want to skip authentication in the newly generated app/controllers/select/select_controller.rb:

class DynamicSelectable::SelectController < ApplicationController
  # skip_before_action :authenticate_user!
end

Finally, you'll want to add the following require to your application.js:

//= require jquery-dynamic-selectable

Now that you have DynamicSelectable installed, you're ready to start creating some dynamic_collection_select fields in your application!

The first step to creating a dynamic_collection_select is to generate a controller and route for it. Using the vehicle example from above, your Make and Model models might look like the following:

# == Schema Information
#
# Table name: makes
#
#  id         :integer          not null, primary key
#  name       :string
#  created_at :datetime         not null
#  updated_at :datetime         not null
#

class Make < ActiveRecord::Base
end

# == Schema Information
#
# Table name: models
#
#  id         :integer          not null, primary key
#  name       :string
#  make_id    :integer
#  created_at :datetime         not null
#  updated_at :datetime         not null
#

class Model < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :make
end

To generate the controller and route necessary for your selection of Make to dynamically populate your selection of Model, run the following:

# Usage: rails generate dynamic_selectable:select parent child value_method text_method [sort_col:asc/desc]
$ rails generate dynamic_selectable:select make model id name name:asc

Now you just need to build your form. The method dynamic_collection_select is very similar to collection_select, but contains the new dynamic_model parameter. This parameter is a symbol representing the child model whose collection will be populated based on the value selected in this parent field.

If you would like to submit the value of the dynamic_collection_select with the form, just add { submit_with_form: true } to the options hash.

def dynamic_collection_select(object, method, dynamic_model, collection, value_method, text_method,
                              options = {}, html_options = {})

A very simple form would look something like this:

<%= form_for(@vehicle) do |f| %>
  <div>
    <%= label_tag :make_id %>
    <%= dynamic_collection_select :vehicle, :make_id, :model, Make.all, :id, :name,
        { include_blank: true }, {} %>
  </div>

  <div>
    <%= f.label :model_id %>
    <%= f.collection_select :model_id, [], :id, :name, {}, {} %>
  </div>

  <%# ... %>
<% end %>

That's it. Happy selecting!

By default, DynamicSelectable uses the object and method parameters of dynamic_collection_select to generate data attributes used by the gem's Javascript. Depending on your model, or if you are creating a form with a gem like Ransack, the values you provide for these parameters could prevent DynamicSelectable from generating the necessary data attributes properly. To resolve this, you can manually specify these attributes in a data hash within your tag's html_options hash. For example:

<%= dynamic_collection_select :q, :make_id_eq, :model, Make.all, :id, :name,
  {}, { data: { dynamic_selectable_url:    '/dynamic_selectable/makes/:make_id/models',
                dynamic_selectable_target: '#q_model_id_eq' } } %>

The value for dynamic_selectable_url can be found in your routes:

$ rake routes | grep dynamic
dynamic_selectable_make_models GET    /dynamic_selectable/makes/:make_id/models(.:format) dynamic_selectable/make_models#index

and the value for dynamic_selectable_target is generated with your form. This can be found by inspecting the child element in your web browser.

$ rm app/controllers/dynamic_selectable/models_controller.rb

and remove the related line from your routes.rb:

get ':make_id/models', to: 'models#index', as: :models

$ rm -rf app/controllers/dynamic_selectable

and remove the following block from your routes.rb:

namespace :dynamic_selectable do
  # ...
end

1. Fork it ( https://github.com/moorem/dynamic_selectable/fork )
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create a new Pull Request