I figured out a work around and I figured I'd post it here in case anyone can benefit.
You can set up Paperclip to load an image using a url instead of selecting a file from your local PC. I had this set up, but haven't used it in a while. (I had removed that form field from the new form, so that it couldn't be accessed) You can find tutorials online to set that up. To make my app work, I added the field back to the form: <div class="form-group"> <%= f.input :image_remote_url, label: "or enter a URL" %> </div> And my controller now is: def copy @source = Pin.find(params[:id]) @image = @source.image.url @pin = Pin.new(artist: @source.artist, album: @source.album, year: @source.year, image_remote_url: @image) render 'new' end And I had to add .to_s to the image_remote_url method in my model: def image_remote_url=(url_value) self.image = URI.parse(url_value).to_s unless url_value.blank? super end Now when a user clicks a button on a record in my app, which is coded: <%= link_to "copy", copy_pin_path(params[:id]) %> It takes them to the new form, with the artist, album, year, and the url of the image already filled in. On Thursday, January 8, 2015 at 1:41:39 PM UTC-5, Ruby-Forum.com User wrote: > > My site is for posting album reviews, which are called Pins. The pins > model has the following attributes: > > :artist, :year, :title, :rank, :description, and :image > > The image uses Paperclip and is stored on Amazon S3 if that matters > > I am trying to allow a user to see a review that another user posted and > click a link to more simply write their own review for that same album. > So basically the link takes them to the Pin.new page and the form > already has the :artist, :title, :image, and :year filled in. > > I figured out how to do it while bringing all of the attributes that I > want, but the image doesn't come over to the new form. > > Here is the pins_controller.rb code I'm using, which gives me an error > of "no implicit conversion of URI::Generic into String": > > def copy > @source = Pin.find(params[:id]) > @image = URI.parse(@source.image.url) > @pin = Pin.new(artist: @source.artist, album: @source.album, year: > @source.year, image: @image) > render 'new' > end > > And in my show view: > > <%= link_to "copy", copy_pin_path(params[:id]) %> > > Attachments: > > http://www.ruby-forum.com/attachment/10385/Screen_Shot_2015-01-08_at_1.39.06_PM.png > > > > -- > Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rubyonrails-talk+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rubyonrails-talk/1e76dd91-d335-414b-afb8-ced8cac200e6%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.