How to update multiple records' attributes from check boxes in Rails 3?

Question

I have an attribute to add a page to my site's navigation (its a boolean) and I want to be able to turn pages on and off from check boxes all at once. I tried following this railscast: http://railscasts.com/episodes/52-update-through-checkboxes but Im running into two problems.

One - I want the check boxes to show the current state of the "navbar" option.

and two - Im not sure how to update the navbar field.

Here is my controller:

  def nav
    Section.update_all([:navbar => :params[:navbar]], :id =>params[:section_ids])
    flash[:success] = "Sections were added to navbar"
    redirect_to(admin_sections_path)
  end

and my view:

<%= form_tag nav_admin_sections_path, :method => :put do %>
  <ol id="section_list" class="records_list">
  <% @sections.each do |section| %>
    <li id="section_<%= section.id %>">
    <table>
      <tr class="handle">
        <td class="title link_icon directory_link"><%= section.name %></td>
        <td class="option"><%= check_box_tag "section_ids[]", section.id %></td>
        <td class="action"><%= link_to 'Edit', edit_admin_section_path(section), :class=>"link_icon edit_link"   %></td>
        <td class="action">
          <% if section.has_bio == false %>
          <%= link_to 'Destroy', admin_section_path(section), :confirm => 'Are you sure?', :method => :delete, :class=>"link_icon delete_link"   %>
          <% end %>
        </td>
      </tr>
      </table>

    </li>
  <% end %>
  </ol>

  <ol>
    <li class="submit">
      <%= submit_tag %>
    </li>
  </ol>
<% end %>

The table is nested in the list item because of some jquery-ui sortable stuff Im doing.

Anyway I need that check box to show the current state of :navbar AND I need to be able to update them. Right now if I try to update them I get this error:

    can't convert Symbol into Integer
app/controllers/admin/sections_controller.rb:95:in `[]'
app/controllers/admin/sections_controller.rb:95:in `nav'

on this line in my controller"

Section.update_all([:navbar => :params[:navbar]], :id =>params[:section_ids])

So I guess Im not passing the check_box state into my controller correctly.

Answer 1

1. Have the checkbox check properly. Just add the boolean as the third argument.

   <td class="option"><%= check_box_tag "section_ids[]", section.id, section.navbar %></td>
   

2. update the navbar field You'll have to set both the sections where navbar is on and off.

   ids = [*params[:section_ids]] + [0] # makes sure it works when no navbars are selected
   Section.update_all({:navbar => true}, {:id => ids})
   Section.update_all({:navbar => false}, "sections.id NOT IN (#{ ids.join(',') })")
   

EDIT

Needs double quotes instead of single quotes in second update_all. Updated the above code.

EDIT 2

Enclosing the comma inside the join in quotes