This is another boring tip in case you have to construct a form to send to Rails, and I’m sure it’s documented everywhere:
Rails-generated checkboxes return a value of 1 when they’re clicked. That is, the parameters will contain the name of the checkbox and a value 1. But the way checkboxes work is they’re either on or … they’re not included in the parameters. They don’t get sent as “off” or “0″. So the thing to realize is that the Rails-generated checkbox is accompanied by a generated hidden field with the same name as the checkbox and a value of 0. Apparently, if there are two identical names submitted in a form the first one takes priority. Who knew?
So you would do something like this with Ext JS:
new Ext.form.Checkbox({ name : "profile[licensed_realtor]", inputValue : "1", id : 'js_profile_licensed_realtor_field', fieldLabel : "Licensed Realtor", checked : <%= @user.profile.licensed_realtor == true ? "true" : "false" %> }), new Ext.form.Hidden({ name : "profile[licensed_realtor]", value : "0" })
July 13th, 2008 at 6:33 pm - Edit
thats hideous! They surly could have done something easier peoples bandwidth. If it can tell you and pass that zero only if the check-box has been interacted with then great but otherwise its just some bloat because people dont want to have to deal with it on the server side
July 14th, 2008 at 12:48 pm - Edit
I see your point, Shawn, but there are a lot worse ways to waste user’s bandwidth (I’m pretty ashamed of the html + redundant javascript in my other post). I think the Rails guys felt they were “fixing” html form posting. Sending the “0″ is sort of the equivalent of an onUnclick event. I admit that it’s just pushing code around, though.