Nested forms in rails - accessing attribute in has_many relation

Question

I have a user and a profile model. One user can have many profiles. I need to access only one information from the profiles section (viz the phone number) in my user model d

Answer 1

You can use 'accepts_nested_attributes_for' to do this; but there's a little trick in forms:

You must use the singular, and call fields_for for each profile, like this:

<% form_for @user do |f| -%>
<% @user.profiles.each do %>
<% f.fields_for :profile_attributes, profile do |ff| -%>
<% end %>

Notice that is :profile_attributes, instead of just :profile.

Answer 2

You could do something like the following:

<% form_for @user, :url => { :action => "update" } do |user_form| %>
  ...
  <% user_form.fields_for :profiles do |profiles_fields| %>
     Phone Number: <%= profiles_fields.text_field :profile_mobile_number %>
   <% end %>
<% end %>

But since you already have an association, then might as well use 'accepts_nested_attributes_for'

Answer 3

You should watch RailsCasts Nested Model Form.
thanks Ryan Bates great work.

Answer 4

http://apidock.com/rails/v3.2.8/ActionView/Helpers/FormHelper/fields_for

This api dock link list many Nested Attributes Examples including one-to-one, one-to-many. It's very helpful!