How to handle associations and nested forms in Phoenix framework?

Question

What is the way to handle associations and nested forms in Phoenix framework? How would one create a form with nested attributes? How would one handle it in the controller and model?

Answer 1

There is a simple example of handling 1-1 situation.

Imagine we have a Car and an Engine models and obviously a Car has_one Engine. So there's code for the car model

defmodule MyApp.Car do
  use MyApp.Web, :model

  schema "cars" do
    field :name, :string            

    has_one :engine, MyApp.Engine

    timestamps
  end

  def changeset(model, params \\ :empty) do
    model
    |> cast(params, ~w(name), ~w())
    |> validate_length(:name, min: 5, message: "No way it's that short")    
  end

end

and the engine model

defmodule MyApp.Engine do
  use MyApp.Web, :model

  schema "engines" do
    field :type, :string            

    belongs_to :car, MyApp.Car

    timestamps
  end

  def changeset(model, params \\ :empty) do
    model
    |> cast(params, ~w(type), ~w())
    |> validate_length(:type, max: 10, message: "No way it's that long")    
  end

end

Simple template for the form ->

<%= form_for @changeset, cars_path(@conn, :create), fn c -> %>

  <%= text_input c, :name %>

  <%= inputs_for c, :engine, fn e -> %>

    <%= text_input e, :type %>

  <% end %>  

  <button name="button" type="submit">Create</button>

<% end %>

and the controller ->

defmodule MyApp.CarController do
  use MyApp.Web, :controller
  alias MyApp.Car
  alias MyApp.Engine

  plug :scrub_params, "car" when action in [:create]

  def new(conn, _params) do    
    changeset = Car.changeset(%Car{engine: %Engine{}})    
    render conn, "new.html", changeset: changeset
  end

  def create(conn, %{"car" => car_params}) do    
    engine_changeset = Engine.changeset(%Engine{}, car_params["engine"])
    car_changeset = Car.changeset(%Car{engine: engine_changeset}, car_params)
    if car_changeset.valid? do
      Repo.transaction fn ->
        car = Repo.insert!(car_changeset)
        engine = Ecto.Model.build(car, :engine)
        Repo.insert!(engine)
      end
      redirect conn, to: main_page_path(conn, :index)
    else
      render conn, "new.html", changeset: car_changeset
    end
  end    

end

and an interesting blog post on the subject that can clarify some things as well -> here

Answer 2

Ran into the same problem with a has_many relationship. Unfortunately, a Car cannot have many Engines, so I'd take the same example in this blogpost, of a TodoList, with many TodoItems

TodoList model:

defmodule MyApp.TodoList do
  use MyApp.Web, :model

  schema "todo_lists" do
    field :title, :string            

    has_many :todo_items, MyApp.TodoItem

    timestamps
  end
 
  def changeset(model, params \\ :{}) do
    model
    |> cast(params, [:title])
    |> cast_assoc(:todo_items)
  end 
end

TodoItem model:

defmodule MyApp.TodoItem do
  use MyApp.Web, :model

  schema "todo_items" do
    field :body, :string

    belongs_to :todo_list, MyApp.TodoList

    timestamps
  end

  def changeset(model, params \\ :{}) do
    model
    |> cast(params, [:body])
  end
end

Here is the form creation a TodoList. To keep things simple let's just add one item for now.

<%= form_for @changeset, todo_lists_path(@conn, :create), fn f -> %>    
  <%= text_input f, :title %>  
  <%= inputs_for f, :todo_items, fn i -> %> 
    <%= text_input i, :body %> 
  <% end %>   
  <button name="button" type="submit">Create</button> 
<% end %>

This is how TodoListController would look like. The create method was the trickiest to get right. I had to dig into Ecto Tests to find a way to make this work. Link

defmodule MyApp.TodoListController do
  use MyApp.Web, :controller

  alias MyApp.TodoList
  alias MyApp.TodoItem

  def new(conn, _params) do
    todo_item = TodoItem.changeset(%TodoItem{})
    changeset = TodoList.changeset(%TodoList{todo_items: [todo_item]})

    render conn, "new.html", changeset: changeset
  end

  def create(conn, %{"todo_list" => todo_list_params}) do
    todo_item_changeset =
      TodoItem.changeset(%TodoItem{}, todo_item["todo_items"]["0"])
    changeset =
      TodoList.changeset(%TodoList{}, %{title: todo_list_params["title"]})
      |> Ecto.Changeset.put_assoc(:todo_items, [todo_item_changeset])

    case Repo.insert(changeset) do
      {:ok, company} ->
        conn
        |> put_flash(:info, "TodoList created!")
        |> redirect(to: page_path(conn, :index))
      {:error, changeset} ->
        conn
        |> render "new.html", changeset: changeset
    end
  end
end