Why does form_for class addition only work when i explicitly declare a submit label?

Question

I am trying to style form elements within this rails form_for but continually run into syntax error, nothing i try seems to be working:

_form.html.erb:

<%= form_for(@todo_list) do |f| %>
  <div class="form-group">
    <%= f.label :title %><br>
    <%= f.text_field :title %>
  </div>
  <div class="form-group">
    <%= f.label :description %><br>
    <%= f.text_area :description %>
  </div>
  <div>
    <%= f.submit, html: {class: "btn btn-default btn-xs"} %>
  </div>
<% end %>

This just gives this error:

_form.html.erb:23: syntax error, unexpected tLABEL, expecting '=' ...buffer.append=( f.submit, html: {class: "btn btn-default btn... ...

All sorts of variations of class=, class:, html=>, passing in html => {:class => "form-horizontal"}, etc etc, all just seem to give the same syntax error.

The only exception is when I explicitly apply a label to the submit action, e.g.;

<%= f.submit 'Save', class: "btn btn-default btn-xs" %>

Then the class gets added successfully and my bootstrap styling works. However this neither locates the primary problem nor solves it as then I can't use rails' form_for dynamic naming of the submit action.

Classes I apply to divs seem to work fine, bootstrap is loaded fine. Can anyone help? Thanks

The issue was that i wasn including a comma where i shouldn't have been; <%= f.submit class: "btn btn-primary btn-xs" %> not <%= f.submit, class: "btn btn-primary btn-xs" %> — jbk

Wes Foster Wes Foster · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-20T13:26:26

You get the error because submit is a function and the first argument is the label. You cannot write f.submit, as you did in your code example.

You need to supply at least nil as a label if you're wanting to add the second argument. The correct way to do this would be:

<%= f.submit nil, html: {class: "btn btn-default btn-xs"} %>

From APIDock

submit(value=nil, options={}) public

Why does form_for class addition only work when i explicitly declare a submit label?

1 Answers