How to call method inside Rails Method - ruby-on-rails

Question

I am struggling to call a method in my User Model. I have a long method similar to this:
def find_content
def find_x
# call api
end
def find_y
#call api
end
content = {"x": find_x, "y": find_y}
return content
end
I then try to call it like this in my model:
class User < ApplicationRecord
def User.news
# get result of find_content
content = find_content
# I also tried doing User.find_content when the function was inside the model
## the function then passes the content variable to my UserMailer which sends emails to my users with the content
end
I have tried placing my find_content in the User Model with def self.find_content and without the self part.
I was wondering where is the best place to put a function that can be used like this in the model.

Answer 1

If I where are you I would create a Service class or a lib class, and I would call it.
Don't define your methods inside methods. Try something like this
class MyFancyService
def find_content
{"x": find_x, "y": find_y}
end
private
def find_x
#code
end
def find_y
#code
end
end
And inside your model
#remember to require your libs/services class in somewhere (maybe application.rb)
class User < ApplicationRecord
def news
MyFancyService.new.find_content
end
end
Do not abuse of Class method (def self.bla) you should have more instance methods.

Answer 2

The reason you are having this issue is that finding content is not really a User concern and should be broken out into a separate class as Horacio mentions, but I don't think the User class needs to know anything about finding content. It is possible that you need some User info to properly find content however.
I would suggest something like this (assuming you need something from a User object to call your api)
class User
def user_stuff_needed_by_api
end
end
class NewsAPI
def initialize(user_stuff)
# set stuff needed based on the user
end
def find_x
# call api
"x"
end
def find_y
# call api
"y"
end
def find_content
{"x": find_x, "y": find_y}
end
end
Then in your controller you have the user object, so get what you need from it, create an instance of the api and make your call
user_stuff = #user.user_stuff_needed_by_api
news_api = NewsAPI.new(user_stuff)
content = news_api.find_content
If you really want to make calls to the api inside your a User instance which I don't think you should, I would recommend passing in an instance of the api via a setter and then delegate find_content to that instance. So something like this.
class User
def set_news_api(api)
#news_api = api
end
def find_content
#news_api.find_content
end
end
Lastly if you really want to put all this in the User class something like this should work, but again is not recommended.
class User
def self.find_x
"xx"
# call api
end
def self.find_y
"yy"
#call api
end
def find_content
{"x": self.class.find_x, "y": self.class.find_y}
end
def self.other_find_content
{"other_x": find_x, "other_y": find_y}
end
def user_stuff_needed_by_api
end
end
puts User.new.find_content
puts User.other_find_content