Rails form_tag remote example

Question

I have this incredible simple form:

<%= form_tag(\"/portal/search\", method: \'get\', remote: true ) do %>

  <%= label_tag(:query, \'Search for:\')         


        

Answer 1

When you add remote: true jquery-ujs will provide you the ajax request (by default this javascript lib is required in app/assets/javascripts/application.js).

The ajax call will request a 'text/javascript' response. for that reason your server code should reply with:

# action
def search_query
  respond_to do |format|
    format.js { 
      # additional code
    }
  end
end

If in your view (search_query.js.erb) you provide javascript, it will be executed. That is why everyone is replying you with a $('#my_div_id').html('my html text') suggestion, which when executed will replace your div content with the new HTML.

If for some reason you want to return a json data structure, then you should provide a different data-type:

form_tag("/jquery_ujs/search_query", remote: true, 'data-type' => :json) do
  # ....
end

And you should reply with:

# action
def search_query
  respond_to do |format|
    format.json { render json:  @my_object }
  end
end

And handle the success event:

You can also request a html response (in case you want to return a table, for instance), with :'data-type' => :html and format.html { render layout: false }