Submitting a Rails form with jQuery and Ajax

Question

EDIT: Figured it out so asking a related question.

here's my Javascript

jQuery.ajaxSetup({
    'beforeSend': function(xhr) {
        xhr.setRequestHeader("Accept", "text/javascript")
    }
})

jQuery.fn.submitWithAjax = function() {
    this.submit(function() {
        $.post(this.action, $(this).serialize(), null, "script");
        return false;
    })
    return this;
};

    $('.error').hide();
$("#business_submit").click(function() {
    // validate and process form here

    $('.error').hide();
    var name = $("input#business_name").val();
    if (name == ""  || name == "Required Field") {
        $('#namelabel').show()
        $("#business_name").focus();
        return false;
    }
    var address = $("#business_address").val();
    if (address == ""  || address == "Required Field") {
        $('#addresslabel').show();
        $("#business_address").focus();
        return false;
    }
    var city = $("#business_city").val();
    if (city == "" || city == "Required Field") {
        $('#citylabel').show();
        $('#business_city').focus();
        return false;
    }
    var state = $("#business_state").val();
    if (state == ""  || state == "Required Field") {
        $('#statelabel').show();
        $("#business_state").focus();
        return false;
    }
    var zip = $("#business_zip").val();
    if (zip == ""  || zip == "Required Field") {
        $('#ziplabel').show();
        $("#business_zip").focus();
        return false;
    }
    var phone = $("#business_phone").val();
    if (phone == ""  || phone == "Required Field") {
        $('#phonelabel').show();
        $("#business_phone").focus();
        return false;
    }

    var category = $("#business_business_category_id").val();
    if (category == " - Choose one - ") {
        $('#categorylabel').show();
        $("#business_business_category_id").focus();
        return false;
    }


   $.ajax ({
        type: "POST",
        data: form.serialize()
    });
    return false;
})

the .ajax code fires my create.js.erb file which contains

$("#new_business").submitWithAjax();
$("#new_business")[0].reset();
$("#new_business").hide();

Here's the table below the form.

<div id="unapproved">
  <table width="650" align="center" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0">

    <tr>
      <td width="150"><a class="Contact<%=h @business.id %>" href="#"><%=h @business.name %></a></td>
      <td width="150"><%=h @business.address %></td>
      <td width="100"><%=h @business.business_category.name %></td>
      <td width="200"><%=h @business.description %></td>
      <td width="50"><%= link_to(image_tag('/images/accept.png', :alt => 'Approve'), :id =>@business.id, :action => 'approve') %>
        <a class="Edit<%=h @business.id %>" href="#"><img src="/images/pencil.png" alt="Edit" /></a>
      <%= link_to(image_tag('/images/bin.png', :alt => 'Remove'), @business, :confirm => 'Are you sure?', :method => :delete) %></td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</div>

Now my only problem is that the table below my form isn't getting refreshed dynamically. It adds the data to the database fine and all the validation works great. But I have to refresh the page. I tried adding something like

$("#unapproved").append("<%= escape_javascript(render(:file => 'business')) %>");

but that just breaks it.

Answer 1

My guess (because your "submit" button isn't in the HTML above is that your "business_submit" button is just an input and not a submit button.

This code:

jQuery.fn.submitWithAjax = function() {
    this.submit(function() {
        $.post(this.action, $(this).serialize(), null, "script");
        return false;
    })
    return this; };

doesn't tell the form to submit. It says when "submit" occurs, go do something.

From the jQuery documentation, submit(fn) is used to "Bind a function to the submit event of each matched element. The submit event fires when a form is submitted."

You're never actually submitting the form. I'm willing to bet (can't be sure because I don't have all the code) that is you change the submitWithAjax method to this:

jQuery.fn.submitWithAjax = function() {
    $.post(this.action, $(this).serialize(), null, "script");
    return false; };

it should work. It's at least closer to what you're trying to do.

Answer 2

Is the .append just adding that literal string to your #unapproved div?

The .append wants to append rendered html rather than the ERB code you are trying to use. What I do for this sort of thing is to use the render function in my controller so that the AJAX call gets the HTML that was rendered.

For instance in the controller;

respond_to do |format|
  format.js { 
    render :partial => "menu", :layout => false and return
  }
end

And in the view;

$("a.show_menu").click(function() {
  var url = $(this).attr('href');
  $.ajax({
      beforeSend      : function(request) { request.setRequestHeader("Accept", "text/javascript"); },
                      /* Included so Rails responds via "format.js" */
      success         : function(response) { $("#menu").empty().append(response); },
      type            : 'GET',
      url                 : url
  });
  return false;
});

Answer 3

Working! I just tried to mimic the railscast 136. I threw my table into a file called _unapproved.html.erb. In my index I replaced the table with:

<div id="unapproved">
  <%= render :partial => "unapproved" %>
</div>

And then in my create.js.erb, I had:

$("#unapproved").append("<%= escape_javascript(render(:partial => "unapproved")) %>");

Game over. GG!