Ruby on Rails

I sense that Ruby (on Rails) isn't particularly geared for this type of interactivity.

It really is; It is not however geared for this type of interactivity if you need to exclude a key component of the ROR stack (javascript).

In fact - you're not going to deliver your project at all without js. 

Just have a look at the head section and you'll see that you're including a bunch of javascript which is core to the way that ROR works - even down to submitting forms and handling clicks!

  that JS isn't allowed.  I can use CSS and Bootstrap but no JS allowed in this particular project (JS is our next module).

 

moving on from the fact that you _are_ using javascript, you could ask what exactly they mean by this exclusion.

If they just want you to avoid writing explicit javacript that runs within the page (in /assets/javascripts), then they might allow partials.

this does use javascript - but typically only in a minimal way to replace a div or two with fresh html.

the js here lives in a view, but view.erb.js rather than view.erb.html

in your case, you could link up each seat to be a submit button on an individual form. (e.g. one form per seat), [you could also do each seat as a link with method: :post]

the partial would then either replace the whole plane, or replace the selected seat and the deselected seat.

this article gives some info on how this works

https://blog.codeship.com/unobtrusive-javascript-via-ajax-rails/

having said all that - it sounds like you might be jumping ahead. What you're trying to do is probably going to be covered in your next module!

enjoy,

Rob