Implement tagging function in form object

Implementation flow

• Create tag model and intermediate table

• [Model Association and Validation](#-Model Association and Validation)

• Set Routing (#-Set Routing)

• [Create form object](# -Create form object)

• [Controller processing](# -controller processing)

• Create view

Create tag model and intermediate table

Posts and tags have a many-to-many relationship, so create an intermediate table.

Create a model for your post.

$ rails g model item name:string user:references

Create a tag model.

$ rails g model tag word:string

Create an intermediate table.

$ rails g model item_tag_relation item:references tag:references 

Check the migration file.

db/migrate/create_items.rb

class CreateItems < ActiveRecord::Migration[6.0]
  def change
    create_table :items do |t|
      t.string :name
      t.references :user, foreign_key: true
      t.timestamps
    end
  end
end

db/migrate/create_tags.rb

class CreateTags < ActiveRecord::Migration[6.0]
  def change
    create_table :tags do |t|
      t.string :word
      t.timestamps
    end
  end
end

db/migrate/create_item_tag_relations.rb

class CreateItemTagRelations < ActiveRecord::Migration[6.0]
  def change
    create_table :item_tag_relations do |t|
      t.references :item, foreign_key: true
      t.references :tag, foreign_key: true
      t.timestamps
    end
  end
end

You can prevent the same tag name from being registered with unique: true, but I couldn't implement it well, so I made it unique in another way.

$ rails db:migrate

Model association and validation

app/models/item.rb

class Item < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :item_tag_relations
  has_many :tags, through: :item_tag_relations, dependent: :destroy

  belongs_to :user
end

Get the tags associated with the item through the item_tag_relations model by writing "has_many: tags, through:: item_tag_relations".

app/models/tag.rb

class Tag < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :item_tag_relations, dependent: :destroy
  has_many :items, through: :item_tag_relations

  validates :word, uniqueness: true
end

The description of "validates: word, uniqueness: true" prevents duplicate tag names from being registered. (For some reason it didn't work ...)

app/models/item_tag_relation.rb

class ItemTagRelation < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :item
  belongs_to :tag
end

Set up routing

config/routes.rb

Rails.application.routes.draw do
 root to: 'items#index'
 resources :items
end

Creating a form object

Form objects are tools used to update multiple models in a single form submission. You can treat your own class like a model.

Create an "app/models/item_tag.rb" file under the models directory.

app/models/item_tag.rb

class ItemTag
  include ActiveModel::Model
  attr_accessor :name, :user_id, :item_id, :tag_ids
end

By including ActiveModel :: Model, the instance of that class can be treated as an argument of helper methods such as form_with and render like the instance of the class that inherits ActiveRecord, and the validation function can be used.

Set the column name you want to use in attr_accessor.

Next, add a process to save the information sent as a parameter from the form to the table.

app/models/item_tag.rb

class ItemTag
  include ActiveModel::Model
  attr_accessor :name, :user_id, :item_id, :tag_ids

  def save
    @item = Item.create(name: name, user_id: user_id)
    tag_list = tag_ids.split(/[[:blank:]]+/).select(&:present?)
    tag_list.each do |tag_name|
      @tag = Tag.where(word: tag_name).first_or_initialize
      @tag.save
      unless ItemTagRelation.where(item_id: @item.id,tag_id: @tag.id).exists?
        ItemTagRelation.create(item_id: @item.id, tag_id: @tag.id)
      end
    end
  end
end

The item information is saved and assigned to the variable "@item".

tag_list = tag_ids.split (/ [[: blank:]] +/). select (&: present?) sends the tags sent from f.text_field of the input form as tag_ids in params.

Then, split (/ [[: blank:]] + /) separates the character strings in tag_ids with spaces and puts them in an array as separate words. 　 Finally, select (&: present?) Determines each arrayed value with the present? Method and retrieves it if true.

@tag = Tag.where (word: tag_name) .first_or_initialize to determine if it is a new tag or an existing tag.

If it is an existing tag, use the existing id. If new, generate id.

unless ItemTagRelation.where (item_id: @ item.id, tag_id: @ tag.id) .exists? Wanted to prevent duplicate tags from being saved this time, but even if the validation and migration files are unique Since it has been saved, I dealt with it with a model as a measure of pain.

In ItemTagRelation.where (item_id: @ item.id, tag_id: @ tag.id) .exists ?, check if a tag with the same name exists for the post of the item_tag_relation model which is an intermediate table I am judging. 　 If the tags are duplicated, it will be ture, so the conditional expression is applied with unless.

Controller processing

$ rails g controller items

app/controllers/items_controller.rb

  def new
    @item = ItemTag.new
  end

  def create
    @item = ItemTag.new(itemtags_params)
    if @item.valid?
      @item.save
      redirect_to items_path(@item)
    else
      render :new
    end
  end

　private

  def itemtags_params
    params.require(:item_tag).permit(:name, :text, :image, :tag_ids).merge(user_id: current_user.id)
  end

I'm using the new method on a form object.

Create view

Describe only the relevant parts.

ruby:app/views/items/new.html.erb

<%= form_with model: @item, url: items_path, local: true do |f| %>
  <%= f.text_field :tag_ids %>
<%= f.submit "Post" %>

tag_ids can be used for item objects by associating "has_many: tags, through:: item_tag_relations" in the item model.

Now you can implement the tagging feature.

Articles that I used as a reference

[Ruby on Rails] I implemented a tag search function https://qiita.com/E6YOteYPzmFGfOD/items/177f18e706df05f9b42e

Beginners fumbling to implement Rails tagged features without gems https://qiita.com/ryutaro9595/items/042a1ec713c8c1f2c1d6

rails Implement the function to tag posted articles. https://shirohige3.hatenablog.com/entry/2020/11/08/013327