Ruby on Rails - link_to button / css

Question

Ok so I am teaching myself RoR while developing a simple api & web interface. I have been following a number of guides and testing out different outcomes. I have mocked up some HTML templates and I am at the process where I am starting to strip them down into views.

In my HTML i have the following code, which is a Button with CSS styling:

 <input type="submit" name="" value="Add" id="open-contacts-dialog-btn" class="inbox-sf-add-btn tip" title="Open an dialog to add a new contact"/>  

This is my button in my panel that I would like to link to the /book/new/, I know i need a link_to in here but what would my final code be? The code I have tried is as follows

<%= link_to "Add", new_admin_course_path, :id=>"open-contacts-dialog-btn", :class=>"inbox-sf-add-btn tip" %>

But it is not adding my CSS styling, it is just generating the text "Add". Any help would be useful. Thanks

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4418004/ruby-on-rails-link-to-button-css

Answer 1

link_to generates a <a> tag, which is not input type="submit". What you should use should be a button_to, which generates a form with a input type="submit" button to the link:

<%= button_to "Add", new_admin_course_path, :id => "open-contacts-dialog-btn",
      :class => "inbox-sf-add-btn tip", :method => :get %>

Note the :method => :get. Without it, the button_to will generate a form with method set to post.