Select prompt option disappears when validation fails in Rails

Question

Let me preface by saying I'm a noob to Rails and StackOverflow so please go easy on me. I'm using Rails 2.3.8 with sqlite3 on my dev box.

I have created a select pulldown in a form using the following:

<%= select( "communication", "gig_id", { "Add New Gig" => "new"}, {:prompt => "-- Select Gig --"}, :onchange => "toggle(this, 'gigInfo')") %>

However, when something else in the form fails validation and the "new" page is re-rendered, my prompt goes away and the only option left is the "Add New Gig" option. This is the case with ALL my forms and I can't seem to find any answer as to why.

My controller uses the basic scaffolding so I'm sort of at a loss. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Your observation is accurate, and you astutely observed that :include_blank remains even when :prompt does not.

You can achieve the results you want by setting :include_blank to the string you were using for prompt (it doesn't need to be a boolean).

:prompt, it seems, only appears when there is no value for Rails to supply the given field. When your app re-renders the new view, there is a value to supply that field because it created an instance of your Communication model. (It failed to save that instance, but it looks as though that instance has its gig_id field set.)