Automatic method to set the tabindex using form helpers.

Question

Is there an easy way to have the form helpers set the tabindex parameter automatically when using form helpers in Rails?

Basically, I don't want to have to manually set the tab index on every form element when building forms (I keep forgetting to update them when I change things). The majority of the forms I write are basically a list of fields. The tab index should be in the order they are defined. Ideally, I would set the initial index in the form_for call and everything else would be handled for me.

Does anyone know how to do this?

Answer 1

I usually add a method like this to ApplicationHelper

def autotab
  @current_tab ||= 0
  @current_tab += 1
end

Then in my views I make calls to the helper with a :tabindex => autotab like so:

<%= text_field "post", "login",:tabindex => autotab, :value => @login %>

You can also modify all the text_field, check_box, methods one at a time to add the tabindex automatically, by adding something like this to your application helper: (untested but you get the point)

def text_field_with_tabindex(*args)
  options = args.last
  options[:tabindex] = autotab if options.is_a?(Hash) && options[:tabindex].nil?

  text_field_without_tabindex(*args)
end

def self.included(base)
  base.class_eval do
    alias_method_chain :text_field, :tabindex
  end
end

That might be more trouble than it's worth