Rails passing in params to association on create method

Question

I am currently using a belongs_to relationship in my Rails application to link a map and a group an object that way I can assign those maps to the user based on the group they are in.

I have this mapgroup model.

class Mapgroup < ApplicationRecord
 belongs_to :map, optional: true
 belongs_to :group, optional: true
end

I am getting the map from a dropdown menu in the form but I don't want a dropdown for the group because the use is already in that group.

I opted to assign the group_id in the url to the mapgroup in the create method.

def create
 @mapgroup = Mapgroup.create(mapgroup_params)
 @mapgroup.group_id = params[:group_id] <-- right here
 respond_to do |format|
 if @mapgroup.save
 format.html { redirect_to groups_path, notice: 'Mapgroup crated' }
 else
 format.html { render :new, notice: 'That shit failed' }
 end
 end
end

Is this a good practice? I have done this in previous apps but it seems a bit...smelly. Is there a more elegant way to do this?

• max pleaner: It's fine to assign attributes based onn the params. The one thing I would change about this would be to use .new instead of create. Since you call save later, if you use create you are saving twice which is unencessary. Also, I realize it's just a joke, but instead of returning some generic error message, you should include the validation errors from the model (@mapgroup.errors.full_messages)
• Pat Newell: If params[:group_id] comes from a URL param, i.e., /groups/:group_id/maps, I think it is important that you write it this way (as a way to prevent POSTing to a group that does not match the URL)

Answer 1

You have two issues here:

• need to find parent model first, and then build association (as group_id could be wrong)
• create would try to save record, so you're trying to save twice. Use build/new instead.

 def create
 @group = Group.find(params[:group_id])
 @mapgroup = @group.mapgroups.build(mapgroup_params)
 respond_to do |format|
 if @mapgroup.save
 format.html { redirect_to groups_path, notice: 'Mapgroup crated' }
 else
 format.html { render :new, notice: 'That shit failed' }
 end
 end
 end