Cannot get a many-to-many item to save to the database when using a form

Question

I have a many-to-many relationship between Notes and Stacks. I am creating a form where a user can create a new note, with a title, body, and then a group of check boxes. The group of checkboxes are various Stacks. I want a user to be able to associate one or multiple Stacks with a particular note.

I am using the simple_form gem to do this. Everything is working except the Stacks will not save to the database. The title and body save, but not the Stacks. I have tested both sides of the relationship manually in the console, and they do yield the expected results -- it works.

One thing I notice when I watch what is going on in the Rails Server tab is Unpermitted parameters: stack_ids, as seen here:

Started POST "/notes" for 127.0.0.1 at 2014-10-06 16:00:21 -0600
Processing by NotesController#create as HTML
  Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", "authenticity_token"=>"gMpbaYio0qkPLLrR6ICG0IJ7XNoy3Rn4RHLm3vwUU+I=", "note"=>{"title"=>"asdfs ", "body"=>"asdfasdf  asfsadf ", "stack_ids"=>["1", "2", ""]}, "commit"=>"Create Note"}
Unpermitted parameters: stack_ids

My notes_controller.rb has these params:

def notes_params
  params.require(:note).permit(:title, :body, :stack_id)
end

My stacks_controller.rb has these params:

def stacks_params
  params.require(:stack).permit(:title, :description, :note_id)
end

Here is the form:

<%= simple_form_for @note, :html => { :class => 'form-horizontal' } do |f| %> <%= f.input :title, placeholder: ":title", id: "note-form-title-field", class: "note-form-fields" %> <%= f.input :body, placeholder: ":body", id: "note-form-body-field", class: "note-form-fields" %> <%= f.association :stacks, as: :check_boxes %> <%= f.button :submit %> <% end %>

I have tried replacing :stack_id in the params with other variations, and always get the same result. Any ideas on how to get these Stacks to save to the database, associated with a note? Thanks.

version of rails? 3 has `attr_accessible` and 4 has `strong_params`. also, check my edits for formatting =) — Dudo, Oct 07 '14 at 00:21
`.permit`... duh. rails 4. try allowing stack, and not stack_id. — Dudo, Oct 07 '14 at 00:24
Thanks. Version 4.1. Tried `:stack`, and `:stacks` and other variations. Same results. — HPJAJ, Oct 07 '14 at 01:15
It seems like you're permiting stack_id and passing stack_ids... Already tried to permit stack_ids? — Alexandre Wiechers Vaz, Oct 07 '14 at 04:56
Try permitting stack_ids like this: `params.require(:note).permit(:title, :body, :stack_ids => [])`. It's the usual way to allow a list of ids. — Matt, Oct 07 '14 at 14:02

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:11

1

This StackOverflow posting provides a detailed solution.

In summary, when declaring strong parameters, I needed to explicitly map the stack_ids key to an empty array in my notes_controller.rb file:

def notes_params params.require(:note).permit(:title, :body, stack_ids: []) end

edited May 23 '17 at 12:11

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answered Oct 07 '14 at 14:54

HPJAJ

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Cannot get a many-to-many item to save to the database when using a form

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