How to use in_place_editing instead of fields_for?

Question

I setup a User model with restful_authentication and then have a Profile model that belongs to it. I've been using fields_for to combine the fields for editing a User and that user's profile into the User edit view.

I'd like to be able to set a few of the fields to use the in_place_editing plugin on the User show view. It works fine on the User table fields following the example given

*users_controller.rb*

in_place_edit_for :user, :email

/views/users/show.html.erb

<%= in_place_editor_field :user, :email %>

but I can't figure out how to properly write the controller or the in_place_editor_field bit on the view for any field that I access on the edit view via:

<% fields_for @up do |profile_fields| %>
<%= profile_fields.text_field :status %>
<% end %>

*in the users_controller (for clarity):*

def edit
  @user = User.find(params[:id])
  @up = @user.profile
end

How do I create the symbols for something like :user.profile, :status for the users_controller and /views/users/show.html.erb?

Thanks for all help.

Answer 1

I use the in_place_editor helper tag. Wrap the stuff you want to edit in a span/div, give it a unique id and reference that in the in_place_editor tag.

# in the view 
<span id="user_email"><%= user.email -%></span>

<%= in_place_editor "user_email", :url => {:controller => :users, :action => 'set_user_email', :id => user} %>


# in the controller
User.content_columns.each do |column| 
  in_place_edit_for :user, column.name
end

The magic is the :set_user_email - it's an auto generated method in your controller that is created when you use in_place_edit_for in the controller on a model and its attribute(s).

I've included a way to allow for editing on all fields of a model but you may want to limit it to a few of the model attributes.

Depending on how you have the controller setup you may need to set protect_from_forgery to exclude the set action. Just so your aware - this will remove csrf validations on post methods from the in-place edit fields.

EDIT
This Question handles how to include the authenticity token.