Rails is not passing the "commit" button parameter

Question

Reinstalling a Rails app on a new server. Part of the app can fork in one of two directions based on the button the user selects. This part isn't working, and when I look at the log I see the values that I gave the form, execept for the commit portion of the params hash. This seems to be why the app isn't working as expected (since there's nothing in params[:commit], but I have no idea why commit would not be passed in; the request is definitely a POST request, and all of the other parameters are there.

Answer 1

I looked into something like this awhile ago, where there is inconsistency in how different browsers would pass in the value of a submit button on a form. I found the only practical solution was to have javascript in the button to set a hidden field, and use that value instead.

Here is some of my code to differentiate between a save and exit, which goes one way, and save and continue which go another:

  <%= hidden_field_tag 'step_commit', '' %>
  <span style="float:left;">
    <%=submit_tag 'Cancel', :name=>'cancel', :onclick=>"javascript:location.href='/';return false;" %>
    <%=submit_tag 'Save and Exit', :name=>'exit', :onclick=>"javascript:$('step_commit').value='exit';" %>
  </span>
  <span style="float:right;">
    <%=submit_tag 'Save and Continue', :name=>'continue', :onclick=>"javascript:$('step_commit').value='continue';" %>
  </span>

Answer 2

Check that your submit input is named commit or it's label will not be sent.

The resulting html should be:

<input type="submit" name="commit" label="...>

Answer 3

Had a simular problem with a disable-button-on-submit feature. We solved it by adding a hidden input field with the same name and value before submitting the form.

function disableButtonAndSubmit()
{
  var input = $("<input type='hidden' />").attr("name", $(this)[0].name).attr("value", $(this)[0].value);
  $(this).closest('form').append(input);
  $(this).attr('disabled', 'disabled').html('Loading…');
  $(this).closest('form').submit();
}

$('#somewhere button').click(disableButtonAndSubmit);