Compatability without simple_form

[variousred]

I want to use this gem without having to use simple_form. I already have an established app with many forms that i need to add this country/state functionality to.

[arvindvyas]

You can use older version of it , I am trying to manage it separately.

[aldefouw]

@variousred

When I wrote this gem for Version 3.0, I completely changed the public interface that @arvindvyas had in Version 2.0. I wrote it with simple_form in mind because the application that I was working on used simple_form.

I improved it in many ways, but I also added dependencies, which is bad - I apologize. (This is the first gem I have written.)

I have simple_form listed as a dependency in the gemspec, but I should really change that.

The good news is, according to my testing, simple_form is unnecessary.

This gem should work with plain old "form_for" form objects as well.

I just ran a test on code like this.

<%= form_for @form_object do |f| f.select :work_country, CountryStateSelect.countries_collection f.select :work_state, CountryStateSelect.state_options(label: "State / Province", form: f, field_names: {:country => :work_country, :state => :work_state}) end %>

It worked for me.

I need to do some more testing and make sure this is the case and there aren't any hidden problems I neglected to observe - but if I were you, I would give it a try and see if it works for you.

If I can prove that this works without simple_form, I will issue a new version that removes the simple_form dependency and update the documentation accordingly.

Give it a try without simple_form, but stay tuned ...

[variousred]

Thanks for that update, @aldefouw , sounds good

[aldefouw]

UPDATE

I am working on a version that should support form_for, but as I work on it, I am realizing that there are some serious bugs related to cities implementation. I'll haven't reviewed that code that was added because I have been swamped with other projects (not public projects - projects at work) - so I'll have to talk with Arvind about that.

What that means for you is that whatever I deliver to you will have broken cities implementation. Is that a problem?

In any case, the form_for implementation will end up being like this: '<%= form_for @location do |f| %>

<p>Country</p>
<%= f.select :test_country, CountryStateSelect.countries_collection, selected: f.object.test_country %>

<p>State / Province</p>
<%= f.select :test_state, CountryStateSelect.collect_states(f.object.test_country), selected: f.object.test_state %>

<p>City</p>
<%= f.select :test_city, CountryStateSelect.collect_cities(f.object.test_country, f.object.test_state), selected: f.object.test_city %>

<br /><br />

<%= f.button "Submit", class: "btn btn-success" %>

<%= link_to "Cancel", locations_path, class: "btn btn-danger" %>

<% end %>'

Part of the goal of requiring simple form is that things are passed with hashes, so you don't need to manually specify that you have a particular item specified in a list. It just works.

Using simple_form, the gem protects users from having the headache of remembering to select their value. Since a lot of people use partials for their forms, this seemed like a good route.

There's also some difficulties related to if you want to return a string versus a list in form_for. (This is a concern when someone selects a Country that has no states ... we still need to give them an option to fill in a state as a text field.) Simple form facilitated some pretty complex things without writing a ton of code.

I can understand wanting form_for to work though - I get it that legacy code needs to be supported.

I do need to make sure that I am not breaking simple_form functionality by making this more compatible with form_for though.

It will be more code for the end user to implement no matter what I do because form_for is kind of a lame version of simple_form in most ways. (I believe it underpins simple_form.)

With form_for, you'll have to manually specify what is selected. There isn't much I can do to get around that, unless you'd prefer just passing a form object into a method that you place inside the form_for block.

The problem I have with that is that it becomes so abstract to someone reading the form what is actually happening then.

[aldefouw]

I will be posting updates to this branch:

https://github.com/aldefouw/Country-State-Select/tree/regular_form_attempt

I am not done with it, but it's a start.

[arvindvyas]

@aldefouw which code is breaking for cities ?

[aldefouw]

@arvindvyas

I'll need to look at it again tonight since I am currently at my "day job," but as I recall from my testing, cities are not re-populated correctly for edit forms once you have selected them initially.

I will verify tonight unless you want to do your own testing.

https://github.com/aldefouw/Country-State-Select/tree/regular_form_attempt

You can probably see the behavior manifested in the /edit/ page I added to the demo of the branch I was working on for @variousred.

[arvindvyas]

@variousred if you use form like <%= form_for @location do |f| %> <%= f.select :test_country, CountryStateSelect.countries_collection %> <%= f.select :test_state, [] %> <%= f.select :test_city, [] %> <%end%>

this will work

In the next version of country_state_select simple form will be removed as an dependency

[aldefouw]

@arvindvyas - I agree that the code you are showing technically works for a #new action.

I would caution you though; remember that some people will need a way to reload the data they've already submitted for the #edit action.

They could use a different form for the edit action and load things appropriately, it's true - but many people use a form partial for their #new and #edit forms, and it's painful to have to create separate forms.

The ideal thing would be to create an abstracted method that could be called on a common form partial that would take care of all of the messy logic that determines the appropriate data to be loaded.

I am not sure of the cleanest way to do it, but that's my two cents anyway.

[variousred]

Thanks for your work on this, guys

[arvindvyas]

@aldefouw you are right, this is a temporary solution for those who want to use form for not simple form , I have also removed simple_form from the dependencies so that people who really want to use simple form can add gem inside their application . I will look into the form_for for edit now and once it will complete will do new release.

[aldefouw]

Sounds good, @arvindvyas. I understand where you are coming from.