How to block users from getting messages? - ruby-on-rails

Question

I am beginner in rails. I am building a forum application. It has a messaging facility where users can privately message(not real time. it is like a notification.) to other users. I already achived this. But I want to add blocking feature where user can block other users to avoid getting messages from those particular users. How can i do this? I appreciate your answers. Thanks in advance.
Here is my code.
Notifications Controller
class NotificationsController < ApplicationController
layout "posts"
after_action :read_message, only: [:index]
def index
#notifications = Notification.where(:recipient_id => session[:registered_id]).order("created_at DESC")
end
def new
#user = User.find(session[:user_id])
#notification = #user.notifications.new
end
def create
#user = User.find(session[:user_id])
#notification = #user.notifications.new notification_params
if #notification.save
redirect_to(:controller => "posts", :action => "index")
else
render "new"
end
end
def sent_messages
#notifications = Notification.where(:user_id => session[:user_id]).order("created_at DESC")
end
private
def notification_params
params.require(:notification).permit(:message, :user_id, :recipient_id, :status)
end
def read_message
#notifications = Notification.where(:recipient_id => session[:registered_id]).order("created_at DESC")
#notifications.read_all
end
end
Notification model
class Notification < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
validates :message, :presence => true
validates :recipient_id, :presence => true
def self.read_all
Notification.all.update_all(status: true)
end
end
Notification migration
class CreateNotifications < ActiveRecord::Migration
def change
create_table :notifications do |t|
t.text :message
t.integer :user_id
t.string :recipient_id
t.boolean :read, default: false
t.references :user, index: true, foreign_key: true
t.timestamps null: false
end
end
end
** Notifications#index**
<div id = "messages_wrapper">
<% #notifications.each do |notification| %>
<div class="<%= notification.status ? 'message_wrapper_read' : 'message_wrapper_unread' %>">
<p><%= notification.message %></p>
<% if notification.user_id %>
<p class = "message_details">from <span><%= notification.user.registered_id %></span></p>
<% end %>
</div>
<% end %>
</div>

Answer 1

For the blocked users concept, you can add a custom attribute in user model called as blocked_users which is stored as an array in the db.
For postgresql you can use array datatypes.
In you notification.rb file,
#Validations,
validate :is_not_blocked_by_recipient
def is_not_blocked_by_recipient
#Check if the user is blocked or no, and write the logic
#self.errors.add()
end
It should work