Ruby on Rails Params set recipient and sender with users_id - ruby-on-rails

Question

Have a recipient and sender, both of the same class(Message) for a messaging system in rails. Want to set the params for both i.e. if user creates a message sender by default is the user_id and recipient will be the contact selected from the users contact list.
Currently the database is only receiving a user_id to the recipient_id column which is wrong and should be to sender_id column. Sender_id receives nothing.
After reading, some say not to amend the params as this is bad practice. So set a hidden field in the message view (like the body and title) yet this isn't pushing in to the database.
Two questions, is this process an appropriate rails practice? (ask this as new to rails) If not: can you advise another path or direction? If so: any ideas/thoughts why this isn't saving in to the database?
user model
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :messages, class_name: "Message", foreign_key: "recipient_id"
has_many :sent_messages, class_name: "Message", foreign_key: "sender_id"
has_many :contacts, dependent: :destroy
devise :database_authenticatable, :registerable,
:recoverable, :rememberable, :trackable, :validatable
validates_presence_of :firstname, allow_blank: false
validates_presence_of :surname, allow_blank: false
end
message model
class Message < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :sender, class_name: "User", foreign_key: "sender_id"
belongs_to :recipient, class_name: "User", foreign_key: "recipient_id"
validates_presence_of :body, :title
end
Messages controller
class MessagesController < ApplicationController
before_action :message, only: [:show]
before_action :authenticate_user!
def index
#messages = current_user.messages
end
def new
#message = Message.new
end
def create
current_user.messages.create(message_params)
redirect_to '/messages'
end
def show
end
private
def message_params
params.require(:message).permit(:title, :body, :sender_id, :recipient_id)
end
def message
#message = Message.find(params[:id])
end
end
message/new view
<%= form_for #message do |f| %>
<%= hidden_field_tag :sender_id, current_user.id %>
<%= f.text_field :title %>
<%= f.text_field :body %>
<%= f.submit %>
<% end %>
schema
ActiveRecord::Schema.define(version: 20160517131719) do
# These are extensions that must be enabled in order to support this database
enable_extension "plpgsql"
create_table "contacts", force: :cascade do |t|
t.string "firstname"
t.string "surname"
t.string "email"
t.integer "phone"
t.datetime "created_at", null: false
t.datetime "updated_at", null: false
t.string "image_file_name"
t.string "image_content_type"
t.integer "image_file_size"
t.datetime "image_updated_at"
t.integer "user_id"
end
add_index "contacts", ["user_id"], name: "index_contacts_on_user_id", using: :btree
create_table "messages", force: :cascade do |t|
t.string "title"
t.text "body"
t.integer "sender_id"
t.integer "recipient_id"
t.datetime "created_at"
t.datetime "updated_at"
end
create_table "users", force: :cascade do |t|
t.string "email", default: "", null: false
t.string "encrypted_password", default: "", null: false
t.string "reset_password_token"
t.datetime "reset_password_sent_at"
t.datetime "remember_created_at"
t.integer "sign_in_count", default: 0, null: false
t.datetime "current_sign_in_at"
t.datetime "last_sign_in_at"
t.inet "current_sign_in_ip"
t.inet "last_sign_in_ip"
t.datetime "created_at", null: false
t.datetime "updated_at", null: false
t.string "firstname"
t.string "surname"
end
add_index "users", ["email"], name: "index_users_on_email", unique: true, using: :btree
add_index "users", ["reset_password_token"], name: "index_users_on_reset_password_token", unique: true, using: :btree
add_foreign_key "contacts", "users"
end

Answer 1

Try changing your form to this:
<%= form_for #message do |f| %>
<%= f.hidden_field :sender_id, value: current_user.id %>
<%= f.text_field :title %>
<%= f.text_field :body %>
<%= f.submit %>
<% end %>

Answer 2

Currently the database is only receiving a user_id to the recipient_id
column which is wrong and should be to sender_id column.
In your create action, you have current_user.messages.create(message_params). This creates a message record in the DB with the foreign key's(i.e, recipient_id in your case) value with the parent's(user) id. This is the reason, the recipient_id gets the value of user's id.
Sender_id receives nothing.
This is because the hidden_field set for sender_id is not wrapped with the form builder instance. You need to change
<%= hidden_field_tag :sender_id, current_user.id %>
to
<%= f.hidden_field :sender_id, current_user.id %>