Adding Twitter bootstrap styling to Rails form helpers

Question

After reading the answer which suggested I use Simple_form gem with bootstrap integration, I installed it and created my form according to simple_form instructions, but the inpu

Answer 1

Rather than using the .form-actions class, which wraps the submit button in gray block (which might not work for your page design), you can also wrap the button in a control group like this:

  <div class="control-group">
    <div class="controls">
      <%= f.button :submit %>
    </div>
  </div>

This is only really needed if you're using the .form-horizontal class on the form itself.

If you're looking for a drop-in replacement form builder that outputs bootstrap-style markup for Rails, you might want to check out a gem that I put together to handle this sort of thing:

https://github.com/potenza/bootstrap_form

Here's how you'd setup a horizontal-style form with the submit button properly lined up:

<%= bootstrap_form_for(@user, html: { class: 'form-horizontal' }) do |f| %>
  <%= f.text_field :email %>
  <%= f.password_field :password %>
  <%= f.password_field :password_confirmation, label: 'Confirm Password' %>
  <%= f.control_group do %>
    <%= f.primary "Save User" %>
  <% end %>
<% end %>

This is the example output:

<form accept-charset="UTF-8" action="/users" class="form-horizontal" id="new_user" method="post">
  <div class="control-group">
    <label class="control-label" for="user_email">Email</label>
    <div class="controls">
      <input id="user_email" name="user[email]" size="30" type="text" />
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="control-group">
    <label class="control-label" for="user_password">Password</label>
    <div class="controls">
      <input id="user_password" name="user[password]" size="30" type="password" />
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="control-group">
    <label class="control-label" for="user_password_confirmation">Confirm Password</label>
    <div class="controls">
      <input id="user_password_confirmation" name="user[password_confirmation]" size="30" type="password" />
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="control-group">
    <div class="controls">
      <input class="btn btn-primary" name="commit" type="submit" value="Save User" />
    </div>
  </div>
</form>

Answer 2

You should try the following:

<%= form_for("user", :url => main_app.user_registration_path, :html => { :class => "form-horizontal" } ) do |f| %>
<fieldset>
  <legend>User Registration</legend>

  <div class="control-group">
    <%= f.label :name, class: "control-label" %>
    <div class="controls">
      <%= f.text_field :name %></p>
    </div>
  </div>

  <div class="form-actions">
    <%= f.submit %>
  </div>
</fieldset>

Note that the bootstrap uses some specific selectors for some classes / html elements, so that if you forget to add an element or a class, everything else will be messed up... In this aspect there's no leeway.

On a side note, you should definitely try simple_form, and the bootstrap integration. It will make your life easier.

Update:

<%= simple_form_for("user", :url => main_app.user_registration_path, :html => { :class => "form-horizontal" } ) do |f| %>
<fieldset>
  <legend>User Registration</legend>

  <%= f.input :name %>
  <%= f.input :vote, :collection => [ "For", "Against", "Undecided"] %>
  <%= f.input :country,  :collection => [ "Canada", "Iceland", "Other"] %>
  <%= f.input :email %>
  <%= f.input :image, :as => :file %>
  <%= f.input :password %>
  <%= f.input :password_confirmation %>

  <div class="form-actions">
    <%= f.submit %>
  </div>
</fieldset>
<% end %>