You're trying to create an attribute in Rails 3.2.5 - ruby-on-rails

I have a DI routine where I have a large csv I'm importing with known column format. I first set up a column map:
col_map =
{
4 => :name,
6 => :description,
21 => :in_stock,
...
I then read each line in, and then using the column map, attempt to set the attribute:
i = Item.new
col_map.each do |k,v|
i[v] = chunks[k] #chunks is the line read in split by the delimiter
In my item declaration, I declare two attributes, b/c these are not stored in the database, they're used for other logic:
attr_writer :in_stock
attr_writer :end_date
When the code gets to this line:
i[v] = chunks[k]
I get this message:
X.DEPRECATION WARNING: You're trying to create an attribute `in_stock'. Writing arbitrary attributes on a model is deprecated. Please just use `attr_writer`
But I'm not trying to create an attribute, and I am using attr_writer. I suspect this has something to do with the [] I'm using instead of . for the lvalue.
Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks for any help,
Kevin

Admittedly, the deprecation wording is slightly confusing, but you're seeing this warning because the model[attribute_name] = ... style is only supported for ActiveRecord attributes on the model, not non-persisted attributes added with attr_writer.
You can see the code that produces the warning over here.
To address this I'd use send which will work for all attributes e.g.
i.send("#{v}=", chunks[k])

Related

What is the difference between :id, id: and id in ruby?

I am trying to build a ruby on rails and graphQL app, and am working on a user update mutation. I have spent a long time trying to figure it out, and when I accidentally made a typo, it suddenly worked.
The below is the working migration:
module Mutations
class UpdateUser < BaseMutation
argument :id, Int
argument :first_name, String
argument :last_name, String
argument :username, String
argument :email, String
argument :password, String
field :user, Types::User
field :errors, [String], null: false
def resolve(id:, first_name:, last_name:, username:, email:, password:)
user = User.find(id)
user.update(first_name:, last_name:, username:, email:, password:)
{ user:, errors: [] }
rescue StandardError => e
{ user: nil, errors: [e.message] }
end
end
end
The thing I am confused about is when I define the arguments, they are colon first: eg :id or :first_name
When I pass them to the resolve method they only work if they have the colon after: eg id: or first_name:
When I pass the variables to the update method, they use the same syntax of colon after, for all variables other than ID. For some reason, when I used id: it was resolving to a string "id", and using colon first :id was returning an undefined error.
It is only when I accidentally deleted the colon, and tried id that it actually resolved to the passed through value.
My question for this, is why and how this is behaving this way? I have tried finding the answer in the docs, and reading other posts, but have been unable to find an answer.
Please someone help my brain get around this, coming from a PHP background, ruby is melting my brain.
It's going to take some time to get used to Ruby, coming from PHP, but it won't be too bad.
Essentially id is a variable, or object/model attribute when used like model_instance.id. In PHP this would be like $id or $object_instance->id.
When you see id: it is the key in a key-value pair, so it expects something (a value) after it (or assumes nil if nothing follows, often in method definitions using keyword arguments like your example). A typical use might be model_instance.update(id: 25) where you are essentially passing in a hash to the update method with id as the key and 25 as the value. The older way to write this in Ruby is with a "hash rocket" like so: model_instance.update(:id => 25).
More reading on Ruby hashes: https://www.rubyguides.com/2020/05/ruby-hash-methods
More reading on keyword arguments: https://www.rubyguides.com/2018/06/rubys-method-arguments
Now if you're paying attention that hash rocket now uses the 3rd type you're asking about. When you see a colon preceding a string like that it is called a "symbol" and it will take some time to get used to them but they are essentially strings in Ruby that are one character fewer to define (and immutable). Instead of using 'id' or "id" as a string, Ruby folks often like to use :id as a symbol and it will typically auto-convert to a string when needed. A good example might be an enumerator of sorts.
state = :ready
if state == :ready
state = :finished
else
state = :undefined
end
More reading on Ruby symbols: https://www.rubyguides.com/2018/02/ruby-symbols

In Rails, Using Mongoid, How do I find all Models with a valid (not nil) has_one reference?

So I have a two models like this
class ModelParent
include Mongoid::Document
field :name, :type => String
has_one :model_child
end
class ModelChild
include Mongoid::Document
field :name, :type => String
belongs_to :model_parent
end
Assuming I have an persisted instance of ModelParent called mp in the rails console
mc = mp.create_model_child(:name=>"child")
and then do
mp.model_child
it returns a valid object
however if I search for it like this:
ModelParent.where(:model_child.ne => nil).length
it returns 0
I've tried creating model_child and then assigning it, also using build_model_child(), and each method shows model_child is clearly in the parent, however the query for not nil (.ne) fails to find all ModelParents with children.
What am I doing wrong?
Update:
Answering my own question. I'm still unsure why the :model_child.ne => nil is not working, however...
I solved the problem by coding something like this:
def self.with_child
user_ids = ModelChild.all.only(:model_parent_id).map(&:model_parent_id)
return ModelParent.where(:_id.in => user_ids).all
end
It is not working as foreign key is stored on belongs to side of the relationship. So, in your case ModelChild collection will have a field model_parent_id and not the other way around. I guess you had already figured that out, but instead of solving it the way you did, I would suggest you switch around the has_one and belongs_to associations and then use:
ModelParent.where(:model_child_id.ne => nil)
I found another way, but I don't know if is more efficient or less: you can use the reject method.
For example:
ModelParent.all.reject{ |r| r.model_child.nil?}
I wouldn't rely on the .ne in such cases, I found that .ne method isn't always working good:
For example try to put a string named "false" and try to search for it with .ne ;-)
I found out that for such cases the best way to find the proper models reliably is to filter by native Mongo $type
ModelParent.where(:model_child_id => { :$type => 7 })
Below the list of known types, found this much more efficient to find malformed fields
Double 1
String 2
Object 3
Array 4
Binary data 5
Undefined (deprecated) 6
Object id 7
Boolean 8
Date 9
Null 10
Regular Expression 11
JavaScript 13
Symbol 14
JavaScript (with scope) 15
32-bit integer 16
Timestamp 17
64-bit integer 18
Min key 255
Max key 127

How are symbols used to identify arguments in ruby methods

I am learning rails and going back to ruby to understand how methods in rails (and ruby really work). When I see method calls like:
validates :first_name, :presence => true
I get confused. How do you write methods in ruby that accept symbols or hashes. The source code for the validates method is confusing too. Could someone please simplify this topic of using symbols as arguments in ruby class and instance methods for me?
UPDATE:
Good one #Dave! But What I was trying out was something like:
def full_name (:first_name, :last_name)
#first_name = :first_name
#last_name = :last_name
p "#{#first_name} #{last_name}"
end
full_name("Breta", "Von Sustern")
Which obviously raises errors. I am trying to understand: Why is passing symbols like this as arguments wrong if symbols are just like any other value?
Symbols and hashes are values like any other, and can be passed like any other value type.
Recall that ActiveRecord models accept a hash as an argument; it ends up being similar to this (it's not this simple, but it's the same idea in the end):
class User
attr_accessor :fname, :lname
def initialize(args)
#fname = args[:fname] if args[:fname]
#lname = args[:lname] if args[:lname]
end
end
u = User.new(:fname => 'Joe', :lname => 'Hacker')
This takes advantage of not having to put the hash in curly-brackets {} unless you need to disambiguate parameters (and there's a block parsing issue as well when you skip the parens).
Similarly:
class TestItOut
attr_accessor :field_name, :validations
def initialize(field_name, validations)
#field_name = field_name
#validations = validations
end
def show_validations
puts "Validating field '#{field_name}' with:"
validations.each do |type, args|
puts " validator '#{type}' with args '#{args}'"
end
end
end
t = TestItOut.new(:name, presence: true, length: { min: 2, max: 10 })
t.show_validations
This outputs:
Validating field 'name' with:
validator 'presence' with args 'true'
validator 'length' with args '{min: 2, max: 10}'
From there you can start to see how things like this work.
I thought I'd add an update for Ruby 2+ since this is the first result I found for 'symbols as arguments'.
Since Ruby 2.0.0 you can also use symbols when defining a method. When calling the method these symbols will then act almost the same as named optional parameters in other languages. See example below:
def variable_symbol_method(arg, arg_two: "two", arg_three: "three")
[arg, arg_two, arg_three]
end
result = variable_symbol_method :custom_symbol, arg_three: "Modified symbol arg"
# result is now equal to:
[:custom_symbol, "two", "Modified symbol arg"]
As shown in the example, we omit arg_two: when calling the method and in the method body we can still access it as variable arg_two. Also note that the variable arg_three is indeed altered by the function call.
In Ruby, if you call a method with a bunch of name => value pairs at the end of the argument list, these get automatically wrapped in a Hash and passed to your method as the last argument:
def foo(kwargs)
p kwargs
end
>> foo(:abc=>"def", 123=>456)
{:abc=>"def", 123=>456}
>> foo("cabbage")
"cabbage"
>> foo(:fluff)
:fluff
There's nothing "special" about how you write the method, it's how you call it. It would be perfectly legal to just pass a regular Hash object as the kwargs parameter. This syntactic shortcut is used to implement named parameters in an API.
A Ruby symbol is just a value as any other, so in your example, :first_name is just a regular positional argument. :presence is a symbol used as a Hash key – any type can be used as a Hash key, but symbols are a common choice because they're immutable values.
I think all replies have missed the point of question; and the fact it is asked by someone who is - I guess - not clear on what a symbol is ?
As a newcomer to Ruby I had similar confusions and to me an answer like following would have made more sense
Method Arguments are local variables populated by passed in values.
You cant use symbols as Arguments by themselves, as you cant change value of a symbol.
Symbols are not limited to hashes. They are identifiers, without the extra storage space of a string. It's just a way to say "this is ...."
A possible function definition for the validates call could be (just to simplify, I don't know off the top of my head what it really is):
def validates(column, options)
puts column.to_s
if options[:presence]
puts "Found a presence option"
end
end
Notice how the first symbol is a parameter all of its own, and the rest is the hash.

Struct with types and conversion

I am trying to accomplish the following in Ruby:
person_struct = StructWithType.new "Person",
:name => String,
:age => Fixnum,
:money_into_bank_account => Float
And I would like it to accept both:
person_struct.new "Some Name",10,100000.0
and
person_struct.new "Some Name","10","100000.0"
That is, I'd like it to do data conversion stuff automatically.
I know Ruby is dinamically and I should not care about data types but this kind of conversion would be handy.
What I am asking is something similar to ActiveRecord already does: convert String to thedatatype defined in the table column.
After searching into ActiveModel I could not figure out how to to some TableLess that do this conversion.
After all I think my problem may require much less that would be offered by ActiveModel modules.
Of course I could implement a class by myself that presents this conversion feature, but I would rather know this has not yet been done in order to not reinvent the wheel.
Tks in advance.
I think that the implementation inside a class is so easy, and there is no overhead at all, so I don't see the reason to use StructWithType at all. Ruby is not only dynamic, but very efficient in storing its instances. As long as you don't use an attribute, there is none.
The implementation in a class should be:
def initialize(name, age, money_into_bank_account)
self.name = name
self.age = age.to_i
self.money_into_bank_account = money_into_bank_account.to_f
end
The implementation in StructWithType would then be one layer higher:
Implement for each type a converter.
Bind an instance of that converter in the class.
Use in the new implementation of StructWithType instances (not class) the converters of the class to do the conversion.
A very first sketch of it could go like that:
class StructWithType
def create(args*)
<Some code to create new_inst>
args.each_with_index do |arg,index|
new_value = self.converter[index].convert(arg)
new_inst[argname[index]]= new_value
end
end
end
The ideas here are:
You have an instance method named create that creates from the factory a new struct instance.
The factory iterates through all args (with the index) and searches for each arg the converter to use.
It converts the arg with the converter.
It stores in the new instance at the argname (method argname[] has to be written) the new value.
So you have to implement the creation of the struct, the lookup for converter, the lookup for the argument name and the setter for the attributes of the new instance. Sorry, no more time today ...
I have used create because new has a different meaning in Ruby, I did not want to mess this up.
I have found a project in github that fulfill some of my requirements: ActiveHash.
Even though I still have to create a class for each type but the type conversion is free.
I am giving it a try.
Usage example:
class Country < ActiveHash::Base
self.data = [
{:id => 1, :name => "US"},
{:id => 2, :name => "Canada"}
]
end
country = Country.new(:name => "Mexico")
country.name # => "Mexico"
country.name? # => true

Rails 3 check if attribute changed

Need to check if a block of attributes has changed before update in Rails 3.
street1, street2, city, state, zipcode
I know I could use something like
if #user.street1 != params[:user][:street1]
then do something....
end
But that piece of code will be REALLY long. Is there a cleaner way?
Check out ActiveModel::Dirty (available on all models by default). The documentation is really good, but it lets you do things such as:
#user.street1_changed? # => true/false
This is how I solved the problem of checking for changes in multiple attributes.
attrs = ["street1", "street2", "city", "state", "zipcode"]
if (#user.changed & attrs).any?
then do something....
end
The changed method returns an array of the attributes changed for that object.
Both #user.changed and attrs are arrays so I can get the intersection (see ary & other ary method). The result of the intersection is an array. By calling any? on the array, I get true if there is at least one intersection.
Also very useful, the changed_attributes method returns a hash of the attributes with their original values and the changes returns a hash of the attributes with their original and new values (in an array).
You can check APIDock for which versions supported these methods.
http://apidock.com/rails/ActiveModel/Dirty
For rails 5.1+ callbacks
As of Ruby on Rails 5.1, the attribute_changed? and attribute_was ActiveRecord methods will be deprecated
Use saved_change_to_attribute? instead of attribute_changed?
#user.saved_change_to_street1? # => true/false
More examples here
ActiveModel::Dirty didn't work for me because the #model.update_attributes() hid the changes. So this is how I detected changes it in an update method in a controller:
def update
#model = Model.find(params[:id])
detect_changes
if #model.update_attributes(params[:model])
do_stuff if attr_changed?
end
end
private
def detect_changes
#changed = []
#changed << :attr if #model.attr != params[:model][:attr]
end
def attr_changed?
#changed.include :attr
end
If you're trying to detect a lot of attribute changes it could get messy though. Probably shouldn't do this in a controller, but meh.
Above answers are better but yet for knowledge we have another approch as well,
Lets 'catagory' column value changed for an object (#design),
#design.changes.has_key?('catagory')
The .changes will return a hash with key as column's name and values as a array with two values [old_value, new_value] for each columns. For example catagory for above is changed from 'ABC' to 'XYZ' of #design,
#design.changes # => {}
#design.catagory = 'XYZ'
#design.changes # => { 'catagory' => ['ABC', 'XYZ'] }
For references change in ROR

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