Ruby on Rails - span tag refresh by javascript in link_to

Question

I have a span tag which is refreshed by javascript. So in my view, this code will display the number :

<span id="actual_nbr"></span>   # Show the number via javascript

The javascript looks like :

document.getElementById("actual_nbr").innerHTML = 1;

Now I want to use this value in a link_to to create an object :

<%= link_to "OK", { :action => "create", :nbr => content_tag(:span, 'actual_nbr') }, :confirm => "Are you sure?", :method => :create %>

If I inspect my element I get :

<a confirm="Are you sure?" data-method="create" href="/purchases?nbr=%3Cspan%3Eactual_nbr%3C%2Fspan%3E" rel="nofollow">OK</a>

And, it returns me an error because span tag is considered as text not html tag :

{"_method"=>"create",
 "authenticity_token"=>"7CC6I1HrmFZcT2Qrkriafago1ZGhizX4cJL+FaSyRkw=",
 "nbr"=>"<span>actual_nbr</span>"}

What is the best way to do what I'm trying to do ?

Thanks

Answer 1

I used Ajax to resolve my problem.

In my javascript :

function submitForm() {
      $.ajax({
           type:'POST', 
           url: '/purchases', 
           data: $.param({ purchase: {id: variable_id, nbr: variable_nbr }})
      });
 }

In my view :

<button type="button" onclick="submitForm()">Send data</button>

In my controller :

def create
        Rails.logger.debug "***************************************"
        Rails.logger.debug params
        Rails.logger.debug "***************************************"
        @purchase = current_user.purchases.create(purchase_params)
        if @purchase.save
            redirect_to @purchase.paypal_url(user_path(current_user), purchase_params[:id], purchase_params[:nbr])
        else
            redirect_to(root_url)
        end
    end

I also used purchases.create instead of purchases.build