Stopping a submit_tag from Sending it’s Value

OK, so say you have a form as follows:

<% form_tag '/', :method => :get do -%>
<p><%= text_field_tag 'q', params[:q] ||= '' %> <%= submit_tag 'Search' %></p>
<% end %>

That form will send the contents of the text box to the page at ‘/’. Unfortunately, it will also send through the value of the submit button, which is ‘Search’ in this case. The url generated will be:

/?q=something&commit=Search

In this case, we would want only the ‘q’ parameter passing through, and in order to do this, all we need do is nullify the name parameter:

<% form_tag '/', :method => :get do -%>
<p><%= text_field_tag 'q', params[:q] ||= '' %> <%= submit_tag 'Search', :name => nil %></p>
<% end %>

This will create the following url on submission:

/?q=something

Gem Documentation Server

Just a quick tip I recently came across:

If you want to see the docs for any of the gems installed on your dev machine, type the following in the command line…

gem_server

…and then browse over to http://localhost:8808/!

Rails 2.0 is Almost Here – Learn About It!

Railscasts are a Rails developers wet-dream.

Since Ryan created the site, it has been a fount of knowledge for anyone wishing to learn about the latest and greatest tips and tricks. To make things even better, they are free, though PeepCode is also very much worth a look for those of us wanting to glean a little (or a lot) of in-depth knowledge; $9 is a menial sum to pay for what amounts to a full-on lecture!

If you haven’t done already, go take a look – there is even a bunch of screencasts dedicated to Rails 2.0!

Browser History in Web Apps

Given that the back button has been around for many years, and users have grown accustomed to it’s use, it’s a shame to see so many web applications neglecting this feature. As an example, I’ll pick on Lightbox, a tool that I like, yet one that is flawed in it’s disregard for the back button. For example:

1. You navigate to a page that contains a thumbnailed image
2. You click the image, and Lightbox shows it centered in your browser, full size
3. You click back, press the back button on your mouse or whatever

Now, I realise that Lightbox has a close button in the image dialog box, but I’m not looking at the box, I’m looking at the image, and furthermore, my natural path back to the originating page is to press the back button, not to close the Lightbox. I therefore end up at the page I was on before I saw the thumbnail.

I’ve seen this with many users – the back button has been scarred into our mind, and to break it now is frivolous, and will ultimately lead to frustration, and lost users.

It’s with relief therefore, that I found Really Simple History, a JavaScript library for dealing with this exact problem – to create a JS history system that can run across many browsers, and provide developers with a little hope that our apps will no longer break the most fundamental user assumptions.

We tried to get the browser history working in Bouldr, and to an extent, we succeeded. The difference between coding something proprietary, and using an open source solution, though is very great indeed, so without doubt, we’ll be refactoring to use this library in the future.