Rails 4 : find or create method - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have an association between experience and company where company has_many :experiences and experience belongs_to :company, Now I want to design this: if a user enters a company name that already exist in the company model it will assign to it but if the user put a company name that doesn't already exist in company model - the company must persist but not be created as a new record (I don't want to use find_or_create method and the find_by doesn't seem working for this situation)
Edit
this is my Company controller
def allcompanies
#companies = Company.paginate(page: params[:page], per_page: 10).order("created_at DESC")
end
def show
#company = Company.find_by_slug(params[:id])
if #company
render action: :show
else
render file: 'public/404', status: 404, formats: [:html]
end
end
def index
#companies = Company.limit(19).order("id DESC")
end
def new
#company = Company.new
end
def edit
end
def create
#company = Company.new(company_params)
respond_to do |format|
if #company.save
flash[:notice] = "Entreprise '#{#company.name}' Crée!"
format.html { redirect_to #company}
else
format.html { render action: 'new' }
end
end
end
def update
respond_to do |format|
if #company.update(company_params)
flash[:notice] = "Entreprise '#{#company.name}' à été mis à jour"
format.html { redirect_to #company }
else
format.html { render action: 'edit' }
end
end
end
def destroy
#company.destroy
respond_to do |format|
format.html { redirect_to companies_url }
end
end
private
def set_company
#company = Company.find_by_slug(params[:id])
end
def company_params
params.require(:company).permit(:name, :company_description, :country, :city, :company_status, :company_size, :company_website, :sector_ids, :job_id, :companylogo)
end
and this is my experience model that actually create a new record for each company
belongs_to :profile
belongs_to :company
validates :company_name, presence: true
def company_name
company.try(:name)
end
def company_name=(name)
self.company = Company.find_or_initialize_by(name: name)
end

Answer 1

OK, so you want some companies to be visible and some not.
Then, you can create a corresponding boolean field, like public_visible and set it to false for companies you don't know(ie created by application users).
In your controller do something like this:
#company = Company.find_by_name(params[:company][:name])
if #company.blank?
#company = Company.create(params[:company].merge({ public_visible: false }))
end
#company.experiences.create(...)
it is just an example, since I don't know your real conditions on companies creation, so you need to adjust it according to your needs.