I’m going to keep updating this post as I make some more findings about Rails that I think are pretty good assumptions a newbie should learn about:

Case 2, forms: I made an array using split(",") in the controller, then in the view I was looping through and could puts them out fine, however the ultimate goal was to use them in a form. Basically I needed it to be name=“order[field_name]” name=“order[field_name_2]”

GOOD Code to do this: <% for c in @customize_this %> <%= form.check_box :"#{c}" %> <% end %>

However I had originally gotten name=“order[c]” name=“order[c]” - basically the same thing for all items in the list… The BAD code was this: <% for c in @customize_this %> <%= form.check_box :c %> <% end %>

Best place to read more about it: http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/FormHelper.html

Case 1, links: Good: <%= link_to “#{item.name}”, :action => “customize”, :id => item.id %> Bad: <%= link_to “#{item.name}”, :action => “customize/#{item.id}” %>