Select input element using f.select() of items connected by a linking table (in Rails)

Question

I have a form for an instance of a "project". Each project can have many clients. Each client is a unique pair of organization and individual (contact person).

So, Project has a many-to-many relationship with Client. Client has a many-to-one relationship with organization and a many-to-one relationship with Organization.

See an image of the model diagram: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/631919/erm.png

In the edit page for a project, I'd like to be able to change the organization for each client through a drop down select menu, but I'm having trouble getting the organizations to appear in the select input item.

Here's what I have:

<% form_for(@project) do |f| %>

  <% @project.clients.each do |client| %> 

    <%= f.select("client.organization_id", Disclosure.all.collect {|d| [d.color.titlecase, d.id] }) %>   

  <% end %>

<% end %>

I know this is wrong, but I don't know how you get a select drop-down menu that I want, which is a select menu with the organization associated with each client as the default selection.

Any help?

Answer 1

<% form_for(@project) do |f| %>

  <% @project.clients.each do |client| %> 
    <% fields_for :client, client do |c| %>
      <%= collection_select(client, :organization_id, ORganization.all, :id, :name) %>   
    <% end %>
  <% end %>

<% end %>

Answer 2

Your schema seems somewhat strange to me...but anyhow..

If you want to list all the organizations in the select and have the current one be defaulted try this:

<%= f.select("client.organization_id", Organization.all.collect {|o| [o.name, o.id] }) %>

The client.organization_id that is current should be selected if this is a restful edit action. See below.

From the docs: http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/FormOptionsHelper.html#M002302

Example with @post.person_id => 1:

 select("post", "person_id", Person.all.collect {|p| [ p.name, p.id ] }, { :include_blank => true })

could become:

<select name="post[person_id]">
    <option value=""></option>
    <option value="1" selected="selected">David</option>
    <option value="2">Sam</option>
    <option value="3">Tobias</option>
  </select>