Rails method executing, when it should not? - ruby-on-rails

Question

rails 3.2
In my tickets_controller, I have the following:
def update
#ticket = Ticket.find params[:id]
authorize! :update, #ticket
#ticket.assign_attributes(params[:ticket])
#ticket.customer_info.company = #ticket.customer if #ticket.customer_info
#ticket.admin_context = true
if !params[:ticket_update_type].nil? && params[:ticket_update_type] == 'save_lead_billing'
#ticket.process_lead_billing params
end
if #ticket.save
#ticket.update_attribute(:ticket_type, #ticket.ticket_profile.ticket_type)
redirect_to [:admin, #ticket], notice: success_message
else
#ticket.customer_info_type = 'existing'
#can_update_ticket = can? :update, #ticket
#tag_groups = TagGroup.with_type('ticket').for_company(#ticket.customer_id)
flash.now[:error] = #ticket.errors.full_messages.join(', ')
render action: "show"
end
end
In my ticket.rb model, I have the following:
def process_lead_billing params
if params[:lead_billing]["pre_tax_total"].nil? || params[:lead_billing]["post_tax_total"].nil?
return
end
# handles case where billing infor has not been added to lead ticket
if params[:ticket_update_type] == "save_lead_billing"
lead_billing = LeadBilling.new(
:ticket_id => self.id,
:pre_tax_total => params[:lead_billing]["pre_tax_total"],
:post_tax_total => params[:lead_billing]["post_tax_total"],
:status => 'entered'
)
lead_billing.save!
end
end
And in lead_billing.rb model, I have the following:
class LeadBilling < ActiveRecord::Base
validates_presence_of :pre_tax_total, :post_tax_total
validates_numericality_of :pre_tax_total, greater_than: 0, allow_blank: false, only_integer: false
validates_numericality_of :post_tax_total, greater_than_or_equal_to: :pre_tax_total, allow_blank: false, only_integer: false
The problem, is that when the form is submitted, with the pre_tax_total and post_tax_total empty, I am getting an error message.
From the log file:
Started PUT "/admin/tickets/163812" for 73.83.66.151 at 2016-12-21 22:05:28 +0000
Processing by Admin::TicketsController#update as HTML
and the params are:
[utf8] => ✓
[authenticity_token] => mNt+aI3YInoutup4UsBGZ8zZkeFRYCBZAsxEv4JPvoE=
[ticket] => Array
(
......
)
[time_span] =>
[city] => Draper
[state] => Utah
[admin] => true
[specialty] =>
[services] =>
[inventories] =>
[ticket_update_type] => save_lead_billing
[ticket_id] => 1480720184_0388234_ticket
[lead_billing] => Array
(
[pre_tax_total] =>
[post_tax_total] =>
)
[id] => 163812
From the log file, the error is:
Validation failed: Pre tax total can't be blank, Pre tax total is not
a number, Post tax total can't be blank, Post tax total is not a number from
And then it points me to the line in the tickets_controller.rb, where the processing_lead_billing method is called (correctly), and then to the line in the processing_lead_billing method, where it tries to save the lead billing.
Execution should have halted, when I checked for nil, but it continued to execute. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Rails has a blank? method that is usually preferred when testing form params.
nil? is a ruby method that will only return true if the object is nil, while blank? covers all sorts of use cases (empty string, empty array, empty dictionary and of course nil value).
In your case, the returned value are most likely empty string given how rails work, and so you should test for blank? instead of nil?.