Fixed and awaiting test on staging server. Problem was in application_helper.rb where the options[:url] hash needed to be populated by a string url using the url_for(...) method. A hash appears to always resolve in rails as GET parameters ?p1=...&p2=...&p3=... and so forth. Added "add" to the friends scope in routes so the url can reach the friend_controller's method. Everything appears to work client side and the entry is inserted into the database correctly.