How to seed data with ActionText has_rich_text? - ruby-on-rails

Question

In my model, I have:
class Listing < ApplicationRecord
...
has_rich_text :description
...
end
In my seeds.rb:
#listing = Listing.new(
title: 'CODE VEIN',
price: 59.99 * 100,
description: "<p>#{Faker::Lorem.paragraphs(number: 30).join(' ')}</p>",
seller_id: seller.id,
release_date: Date.parse('Sep 26, 2019'),
status: :active,
esrb: 'MATURE'
)
Listing.description comes up nil, causing my NOT NULL constraint to error.
I've debugged with pry, and tried #listing.description.body= text or #listing.description.body = ActionText::Content.new(text), both still cause the listing#description to be nil.
This is an API Only project, but I use Trix RTE in the front-end react app. Is there a specific method to seed rich_text columns?

Answer 1

ActionText stores the actual contents in a seperate action_text_rich_texts table which uses a polymorphic assocation to link back to the model that its attached to.
# This migration comes from action_text (originally 20180528164100)
class CreateActionTextTables < ActiveRecord::Migration[6.0]
def change
create_table :action_text_rich_texts do |t|
t.string :name, null: false
t.text :body, size: :long
t.references :record, null: false, polymorphic: true, index: false
t.timestamps
t.index [ :record_type, :record_id, :name ], name: "index_action_text_rich_texts_uniqueness", unique: true
end
end
end
The JavaScript component of ActionText (which is really the whole point) automatically sends AJAX requests when the user user interacts with Trix to create/update the row in the action_text_rich_texts table even before you have saved the record you're creating.
When you then submit the form you're actually submitting the id to the row on the action_text_rich_texts table and not the contents. Then when you save your model it updates the corresponding row on action_text_rich_texts with the record_type and record_id from the model. Its a pretty awkward solution that is built around the idea of never having to add columns to your model.
I don't really see the point in using ActionText in an API as the whole point is to add a quick and dirty Trix implementation to classical rails apps. You really should be able to solve this with just a single text column instead. Especially as that will let you access the contents without joining.

Answer 2

There must be something else going on with your code. Maybe if you share your migration and the complete Listing class file it might be easier to spot what's going on.
Here are a few steps to make sure you got it right:
Create a brand new rails app (you can delete it later):
rails new testrichtext -d mysql --api
Create the db
cd testrichclient
rake db:create
Create the model
rails g model listing description:text
Change your newly created migration file to make sure the column is not null:
class CreateListings < ActiveRecord::Migration[6.0]
def change
create_table :listings do |t|
t.text :description, null: false
t.timestamps
end
end
end
Run the migration
rake db:migrate
Now you should be able to log in into the console, and create a new listing with something as the description:
rails c
And inside console:
l = Listing.new(description: "<p>Something nice</p>")
l.save!
Listing.first.description
As you can see, this is enough to save/seed a new listing with rich text. So anything you may have going on there should be something you're causing somewhere else, by adding a validation differently, or callbacks. Hard to say without looking at the entire file

Answer 3

I found this to work for me:
15.times do
Post.create!(title: Faker::Book.unique.title)
end
then
Post.all.each do |post|
ActionText::RichText.create!(record_type: 'Post', record_id: post.id, name: 'content', body: Faker::Lorem.sentence)
end
To read:
Post.first.content.body.to_plain_text
or:
Post.first.content.body.to_trix_html
...as stated above by OP.
Source:
https://linuxtut.com/rails6-input-the-initial-data-of-actiontext-using-seed-9b4f2/