Default value on select field in formtastic form with no model

Question

I have a formtastic form to gather parameters for report generation. I know formtastic is designed to be used with models but I need to use it here as the form is in an activeadmin page.

It's all working well but I can't set a default value for the selects. I'm willing to implement a "despicable hack" to get this working. I'd prefer not to implement a fake model just to set default values on a form.

The form code looks like this

<%= semantic_form_for "report", :url => report_admin_payments_path do |f| %>
  <%= f.inputs do %>
    <%= f.input :report_type, :as => :select, :collection => report_types, :input_html => {:style => "width:180px"}  %>    
    <%= f.input :start_date, :as => :string, :input_html => {:class => 'datepicker', :style => "width:60px", :value => 1.month.ago.strftime("%Y-%m-%d")} %>
    <%= f.input :end_date, :as => :string, :input_html => {:class => 'datepicker', :style => "width:60px", :value => Time.zone.now.strftime("%Y-%m-%d")} %>
    <%= f.input :country, :as => :select, :collection => locales, :input_html => {:style => "width:180px"}%>
  <% end %>
  <%= f.actions :submit %>
<% end %>

Thanks in advance,

Matt

Answer 1

This or something similar should meet your needs.

class LightModel

  # Subclass this for a model that looks like an ar model but has no persistence
  # good for formtastic forms

  include ActiveModel::Naming
  include ActiveModel::Validations

  def initialize(attributes = {})
    @attributes = attributes
  end  

  # read only atm
  def method_missing(m, *args, &block)
    @attributes[m]
  end  

end

Thanks,

Matt