How do I create multiple submit buttons for the same form in Rails?

Question

I need to have multiple submit buttons.

I have a form which creates an instance of Contact_Call.

One button creates it as normal.

The other button creates it but needs to have a different :attribute value from the default, and it also needs to set the attribute on a different, but related model used in the controller.

How do I do that? I can't change the route, so is there a way to send a different variable that gets picked up by [:params]?

And if I do then, what do I do in the controller, set up a case statement?

Answer 1

You can create multiple submit buttons and provide a different value to each:

<% form_for(something) do |f| %>     ..     <%= f.submit 'A' %>     <%= f.submit 'B' %>     .. <% end %> 

This will output:

<input type="submit" value="A" id=".." name="commit" /> <input type="submit" value="B" id=".." name="commit" /> 

Inside your controller, the submitted button's value will be identified by the parameter commit. Check the value to do the required processing:

def <controller action>     if params[:commit] == 'A'         # A was pressed      elsif params[:commit] == 'B'         # B was pressed     end end 

However, remember that this tightly couples your view to the controller which may not be very desirable.

Answer 2

There is also another approach, using the formaction attribute on the submit button:

<% form_for(something) do |f| %>     ...     <%= f.submit "Create" %>     <%= f.submit "Special Action", formaction: special_action_path %> <% end %> 

The code stays clean, as the standard create button doesn't need any change, you only insert a routing path for the special button:

formaction:
The URI of a program that processes the information submitted by the input element, if it is a submit button or image. If specified, it overrides the action attribute of the element's form owner. Source: MDN