how to use a hidden input field to store a blog post's set of tags

I have some slightly funky UI for inputting tags for a blog post: as tags are entered into an input field they are wrapped into spans that make them look nice by surrounding them in a stylized box, the end result comes out to be something like this: http://forr.st/posts/OLs/original

Now, this input field (call it field 1)is not part of the form that gets submitted to the controller (I'm using RoR btw) for two reasons: it contains extraneous html tags, besides the actual tags; also if it was part of the form pressing enter would submit the form instead of triggering the js that wraps the entered tag into a span.

So what I'm doing is when each tag is entered, I copy its value (via js) to a hidden input field that IS part of 开发者_C百科the tag entry form, and when submitted would contain only the tag values and nothing else. The question is: What should I use as delimiter to separate the tags in the hidden input field. Currently I'm using ';' but if a tag itself contains ; that'd cause problems.

I'm also open to suggestions about the general method of how to keep track of the tags entered into 'field 1'

Thanks a lot,

I would recommend just adding a hidden input for each tag.

<input type="hidden" name="post[tags][]" value="tag_name" />
<input type="hidden" name="post[tags][]" value="tag_name" />
<input type="hidden" name="post[tags][]" value="tag_name" />

then in rails

post.rb

def tags=(value)
   tag_array = [*value]
   # then just filter these out.
end

I use a similar method with the tokenInput jQuery plugin. But in my case I've placed it inside the form. I solved the problems that you mentioned by capturing the keypress event and preventing it for that input and I ignore the search input value.

The one thing that I really like about keeping it inside the form is how it is managed afterward. I place the hidden tag, name, and a remove 'x' in a span (like you mentioned) and then just remove this tag when the 'x' is clicked. I like this because the name and the hidden_tag are removed at the same time.

Just one other tip. If you can, pass the tag_id in the hidden field. This way you don't have to add the tags attribute add all: <input type="hidden" name="post[tag_ids][]" value="tag_name" />.