Ruby on Rails: nested attributes, create a model and its nested attributes use the main model to create more nested attribute models using remote

Question

I have 2 models Order and Item, and the relation between them is Order has_many :items and item belongs_to order.

I want to create one order and multiple items for that order. For the first time when user submits the form it should create an order. Next time(Since I'm using remote) when he clicks on submit by changing only the fields of ITEM(I'm clearing the form details of item in js file keeping fields order same) , A new item for that order should be created.

My view file looks like this

<%= form_for @order, remote: true do |f| %>
  <% if @order.errors.any? %>
    <div id="error_explanation">
      <h2><%= pluralize(@order.errors.count, "error") %> prohibited this order from being saved:</h2>

      <ul>
      <% @order.errors.full_messages.each do |msg| %>
        <li><%= msg %></li>
      <% end %>
      </ul>
    </div>
  <% end %>

   <%= f.label :from %>
   <%= f.text_field :from %>

  <%= f.label :to %>
  <%= f.text_field :to %>

  <%= f.label :shift_date %><br>
  <%= f.datetime_select :shift_date %>

  <h5> Item </h5>
  <%= f.fields_for :items do |item| %>
     <%= item.label :name %>
     <%= item.text_field :name %>
     <%= item.label :size %>
     <%= item.text_field :size %>

  <% end %>


  <div class="actions">
    <%= f.submit %>
  </div>
<% end %>

 <div id= "addeditems">
   <%= render @items %>
<div>

This successfully saves an order and an Item. But the next time it creates another order. How can I use the same order.

I have tried

@order = Order.find_initialize_by_id(params['id']) 

in the create action of order. but its not working as I want.

Is it even possible to do what I intend to do. If yes, how can I achieve that?

Answer 1

I tried the following in the create action of order controller and it worked. If anyone have a better solution please let me know.

def create

    if session[:order_id]
       @order = Order.find(session[:order_id])
       @order.update_attributes(item_params)

    else
       @order = Order.new(order_params)
       @order.save
    end
    session[:order_id] = @order.id  
    respond_to do |format|
      format.html { root_path, notice: 'Order was successfully created.' }
      format.js {  }

    end
  end

  def item_params
    params.require(:order).permit(:items_attributes => [:name, :size])
  end