Rails: Fields_for without a scope?

Question

Is there a way to use fields_for with in a form without having a scope?

For example:

<% fields_for "user[]" do |x|
  <%= x.text_field :name %>
<% end %>

Without the user model being loaded in memory?

I got it working using territory[user][][name], but I would like to keep it in ERB.

Answer 1

is there any specific reason you need to use form_for specifically? Its really designed to be used with an instantiated model object.

Alternatively, why don't you just use the regular form helper tags. You can define it as follows:

<%form_tag :my_form do %>
 <%= text_field_tag :foo, :bar %>
<%end%>

You may want to check the documentation for action view to see how it all works.

Answer 2

I think the answer would be 'no', since those form_for and fields_for would try to determine default value from that given instance variable.

However, I think if you want to lower memory usage from loading that model, you might try to create a mock-up model to return nil values, and create a instance object from that one instead.