Passing text in HTML element through link_to

I'm working on a page that displays a company structure (the index view of the Position class), which is an unordered list of positions.

When a position is clicked the text changes to white, and I want the name or id of that position to be passed to the controller when the "New Position" link is clicked.

I tried making it so that a hidden paragraph is set to contain the name of the selected position, but then I don't know how to access the paragraph within link_to.

Any suggestions? Here is the code:

<ul>
  <% @positions.each do |position| %>
    <% indent = "text-i开发者_JAVA技巧ndent:" + ((position.depth_level - 1) * 20).to_s + "px;" %>
    <li style=<%=indent%> class="position_item"><%= position.name %></li>
  <% end %>
</ul>

<p id="selected_position" class="hide"></p>

<%= link_to 'New Position', new_position_path %>

<script>
  $("li").click(function () {
    $("li").removeClass("hilite"),
    $(this).addClass("hilite"),
    $("#selected_position").text($(this).text());
  });
</script>

If you're wanting it to be passed to the controller, you need to do so using a form (or you could also use a jQuery ajax() call). Also, you should just use a hidden field to store the position value in temporarily since that's probably the more proper way of doing it.

<ul>
  <% @positions.each do |position| %>
    <% indent = "text-indent:" + ((position.depth_level - 1) * 20).to_s + "px;" %>
    <li style=<%=indent%> class="position_item"><%= position.name %></li>
  <% end %>
</ul>

<% form_tag(new_position_path, :id => "new_position", :method => "GET") do %>
  <input name='selected_position' type='hidden' value='' /> 
  <input name='commit' type='submit' value='New Position' />
<% end %>

  <script>
    $("li").click(function () {
      $("li").removeClass("hilite"),
      $(this).addClass("hilite"),
      $("input[name='selected_position']").val($(this).text());
    });
  </script>

When the submit button is pressed, the selected_position param will be passed along in the form and will be available in the controller as param[:selected_position]

Hope that helps!