avoid rendering a simple_form component based on the attribute value

[Chris Beck]

I have a CustomInput < SimpleForm::Inputs::Base that I would like to avoid rendering if the attribute value is blank. IOW, I want to avoid rendering all the wrappers and components. Can I do this within the control to avoid writing if model.attribute.blank? for each control in my template?

[Chris Beck]

My motivation is to have a single template that can respond to both the show and edit controller methods.  When the action is show, I use a custom input that formats a static control conforming to the bootstrap horizontal_form wrappers

[Chris Beck]

The answer is here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13648390/avoid-rendering-a-simple-form-component-based-on-the-attribute-value/13803864#13803864

[Carlos Antonio da Silva]

Hm yeah, that's a nice way to deal with it. I have another idea, how about using a form option to handle that instead?

    class MyFormBuilder < SimpleForm::FormBuilder

      def initialize(*)

        super

        @_skip_blank_attributes = options[:skip_blanks]

      end

      def input(attribute_name, *args, &block)

        unless @_skip_blank_attributes && @object.send(attribute_name).blank?

          super

        end

      end

    end

So that you could use like this, with your form helper:

    my_form_for @foo, skip_blanks: params[:action] == 'show'

This way you don't need to couple the form builder with the helper, and I think it's more flexible to add new conditions (you could use the helper instead of the params check here if necessary).

Completely untested, of course :)

Wdyt?

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Carlos Antonio

[Chris Beck]

Indeed.  That is a better separation of concerns.  And decision to render static controls is a form level operation.  I'll give that a whirl.  Thanks, Carlos.

[Carlos Antonio da Silva]

Cool. If that works for you, perhaps it'd be good to open up a new page in our wiki with the example, like the one we have for attributes filtering (https://github.com/plataformatec/simple_form/wiki/Attributes-filter), that started as an integration with strong parameters. What do you think? Feel free to do that if you find it useful, the wiki is open for everyone to contribute.

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Carlos Antonio

[Chris Beck]

OK.  I'm happy to help out.  Thanks for all u do in this group, Carlos.

[Carlos Antonio da Silva]

Glad to help :).

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Carlos Antonio