Adding a column to model results in RangeError [Refactoring] - ruby-on-rails

Question

I'm currently working on a assignment for ruby on rails course I'm doing. I have to refactor a blog app written in Rails and add the functionality to merge articles.
What I did was to add a new text field in the form that is displayed when you edit the article
<%= text_field 'article', 'merge' %>
After I do that, it complains that there is no merge method in article model so I went ahead and implemented that.
I run the following migration:
class AddMergeWithToContents < ActiveRecord::Migration
def self.up
add_column :contents, :merge_with, :integer
end
def self.down
remove_column :contents, :merge_with
end
end
Then, when when accessing again the app it gives me the following error:
RangeError in Admin::SettingsController#update_database
bignum too big to convert into `long'
Rails.root: /home/saasbook/typo
Application Trace | Framework Trace | Full Trace
app/controllers/admin/settings_controller.rb:38:in `[]'
app/controllers/admin/settings_controller.rb:38:in `update_database'
Full Trace
app/controllers/admin/settings_controller.rb:38:in `[]'
app/controllers/admin/settings_controller.rb:38:in `update_database'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_controller/metal/implicit_render.rb:4:in `send_action'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/abstract_controller/base.rb:150:in `process_action'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_controller/metal/rendering.rb:11:in `process_action'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/abstract_controller/callbacks.rb:18:in `block in process_action'
activesupport (3.0.17) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:457:in `block in _run__331447277__process_action__533401003__callbacks'
activesupport (3.0.17) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:221:in `block in _conditional_callback_around_20300'
activesupport (3.0.17) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:331:in `around'
activesupport (3.0.17) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:315:in `_callback_around_20297'
activesupport (3.0.17) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:220:in `_conditional_callback_around_20300'
activesupport (3.0.17) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:456:in `_run__331447277__process_action__533401003__callbacks'
activesupport (3.0.17) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:410:in `_run_process_action_callbacks'
activesupport (3.0.17) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:94:in `run_callbacks'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/abstract_controller/callbacks.rb:17:in `process_action'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_controller/metal/rescue.rb:17:in `process_action'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:30:in `block in process_action'
activesupport (3.0.17) lib/active_support/notifications.rb:52:in `block in instrument'
activesupport (3.0.17) lib/active_support/notifications/instrumenter.rb:21:in `instrument'
activesupport (3.0.17) lib/active_support/notifications.rb:52:in `instrument'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:29:in `process_action'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/abstract_controller/base.rb:119:in `process'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/abstract_controller/rendering.rb:41:in `process'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_controller/metal.rb:138:in `dispatch'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_controller/metal/rack_delegation.rb:14:in `dispatch'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_controller/metal.rb:178:in `block in action'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:68:in `call'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:68:in `dispatch'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:33:in `call'
rack-mount (0.6.14) lib/rack/mount/route_set.rb:148:in `block in call'
rack-mount (0.6.14) lib/rack/mount/code_generation.rb:93:in `block in recognize'
rack-mount (0.6.14) lib/rack/mount/code_generation.rb:75:in `optimized_each'
rack-mount (0.6.14) lib/rack/mount/code_generation.rb:92:in `recognize'
rack-mount (0.6.14) lib/rack/mount/route_set.rb:139:in `call'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:499:in `call'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/best_standards_support.rb:17:in `call'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/head.rb:14:in `call'
rack (1.2.5) lib/rack/methodoverride.rb:24:in `call'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/params_parser.rb:21:in `call'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/flash.rb:182:in `call'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/session/abstract_store.rb:149:in `call'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/cookies.rb:302:in `call'
activerecord (3.0.17) lib/active_record/query_cache.rb:32:in `block in call'
activerecord (3.0.17) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/query_cache.rb:28:in `cache'
activerecord (3.0.17) lib/active_record/query_cache.rb:12:in `cache'
activerecord (3.0.17) lib/active_record/query_cache.rb:31:in `call'
activerecord (3.0.17) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:354:in `call'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/callbacks.rb:46:in `block in call'
activesupport (3.0.17) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:416:in `_run_call_callbacks'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/callbacks.rb:44:in `call'
rack (1.2.5) lib/rack/sendfile.rb:106:in `call'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/remote_ip.rb:48:in `call'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/show_exceptions.rb:47:in `call'
railties (3.0.17) lib/rails/rack/logger.rb:13:in `call'
rack (1.2.5) lib/rack/runtime.rb:17:in `call'
activesupport (3.0.17) lib/active_support/cache/strategy/local_cache.rb:72:in `call'
rack (1.2.5) lib/rack/lock.rb:13:in `block in call'
<internal:prelude>:10:in `synchronize'
rack (1.2.5) lib/rack/lock.rb:13:in `call'
actionpack (3.0.17) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/static.rb:30:in `call'
railties (3.0.17) lib/rails/application.rb:168:in `call'
railties (3.0.17) lib/rails/application.rb:77:in `method_missing'
railties (3.0.17) lib/rails/rack/log_tailer.rb:14:in `call'
rack (1.2.5) lib/rack/content_length.rb:13:in `call'
rack (1.2.5) lib/rack/handler/webrick.rb:52:in `service'
/home/saasbook/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/webrick/httpserver.rb:138:in `service'
/home/saasbook/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/webrick/httpserver.rb:94:in `run'
/home/saasbook/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/webrick/server.rb:191:in `block in start_thread'
This is the settings controller
class Admin::SettingsController < Admin::BaseController
cache_sweeper :blog_sweeper
def index
if this_blog.base_url.blank?
this_blog.base_url = blog_base_url
end
load_settings
end
def write; load_settings end
def feedback; load_settings end
def errors; load_settings; end
def redirect
flash[:notice] = _("Please review and save the settings before continuing")
redirect_to :action => "index"
end
def update
if request.post?
Blog.transaction do
params[:setting].each { |k,v| this_blog.send("#{k.to_s}=", v) }
this_blog.save
flash[:notice] = _('config updated.')
end
redirect_to :action => params[:from]
end
rescue ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid
render params[:from]
end
def update_database
#current_version = Migrator.current_schema_version
#needed_version = Migrator.max_schema_version
#support = Migrator.db_supports_migrations?
#needed_migrations = Migrator.available_migrations[#current_version..#needed_version].collect do |mig|
mig.scan(/\d+\_([\w_]+)\.rb$/).flatten.first.humanize
end
end
def migrate
if request.post?
Migrator.migrate
redirect_to :action => 'update_database'
end
end
private
def load_settings
#setting = this_blog
end
end
Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

So to just answer the question, you can change the text_field to text_field_tag and remove the first argument. Or you can add a "setter" method to your article model named merge=(val) in which you can code whatever you need to. Hope this helps!