Using render as the value_method in Rails Simple Form?

Question

I'm working on an RoR project with the Simple_Form gem. For those who don't know, simple form creates easier form helpers for use in views. My question is regarding the f.association helper which allows users to easily select associations on models via a select box, radio buttons or checkboxes.

f.association has an option called value_method which allows you to pass a method for generating the name of the individual models in the association to choose from. The default is just to_s, so it will work with select boxes. However, I'm using radio buttons, and I'd like to know if anyone knows of a way to use the render partial method as the value_method.

In my setup, I have a User model with a user.haml partial that I'd like to be rendered next to each checkbox, that way users selecting other users can have any easy to recognize user div with picture, name, and last login to choose.

You could try passing a lambda to the value_method and doing the render partial here. Have not tried this though. See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10728461/simple-form-collection-labels — steakchaser, Sep 17 '13 at 16:31

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 17 '13 at 17:29

Thanks, steakchaser answered my question with his comment. This is the solution:

f.association :some_association, label_method: lambda { |obj| render obj }

I realized label method is better than value method, because even with checkboxes and radio buttons, simple form still put the values in the options value="..." attribute. This caused an html rendering error.

Using render as the value_method in Rails Simple Form?

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