Default boolean value not being set Rails 4 Postgres - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have created a migration to my users table with the following code:
add_column :users, :email_confirmed, :boolean, :default => false
however when a new user is created the :email_confirmed field is automatically set to true. Has this happened to anyone? Am I missing something simple? Any insights are welcome.
My User model:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :microposts, dependent: :destroy
has_many :relationships, foreign_key: "follower_id", dependent: :destroy
has_many :followed_users, through: :relationships, source: :followed
has_many :reverse_relationships, foreign_key: "followed_id",
class_name: "Relationship",
dependent: :destroy
has_many :followers, through: :reverse_relationships, source: :follower
has_secure_password
before_save { email.downcase! }
VALID_EMAIL_REGEX = /\A[\w+\-.]+#[a-z\d\-]+(?:\.[a-z\d\-]+)*\.[a-z]+\z/i
before_create :create_remember_token
before_create :confirmation_token
validates :name, presence: true, length: { maximum: 50 }
validates :email, presence: true,
format: { with: VALID_EMAIL_REGEX },
uniqueness: { case_sensitive: false }
validates :password, length: { minimum: 6 }, :unless => :email_activate
def feed
Micropost.from_users_followed_by(self)
end
def following?(other_user)
relationships.find_by(followed_id: other_user.id)
end
def follow!(other_user)
relationships.create!(followed_id: other_user.id)
end
def unfollow!(other_user)
relationships.find_by(followed_id: other_user.id).destroy
end
def User.new_remember_token
SecureRandom.urlsafe_base64
end
def User.digest(token)
Digest::SHA1.hexdigest(token.to_s)
end
def email_activate
self.email_confirmed = true
save!(:validate => false)
end
def send_password_reset
self.password_reset_token = SecureRandom.urlsafe_base64.to_s
self.password_reset_sent_at = Time.zone.now
save!(:validate => false)
UserMailer.password_reset(self).deliver
end
private
def create_remember_token
self.remember_token = User.digest(User.new_remember_token)
end
def confirmation_token
# only generate if you did not manually set value
if self.confirm_token.blank?
self.confirm_token = SecureRandom.urlsafe_base64.to_s
end
end
end
and my Users Controller:
class UsersController < ApplicationController
before_action :signed_in_user, only: [:index, :edit, :update, :destroy, :following, :followers]
before_action :correct_user, only: [:edit, :update]
before_action :admin_user, only: :destroy
before_action :registered_already, only: [:new, :create]
def index
#users = User.paginate(page: params[:page])
end
def show
#user = User.find(params[:id])
#microposts = #user.microposts.paginate(page: params[:page])
end
def new
#user = User.new
end
def create
#user = User.new(user_params)
if #user.save
UserMailer.registration_confirmation(#user).deliver
flash[:success] = "Please confirm your email address to continue"
redirect_to root_url
else
flash[:error] = "Ooooppss, something went wrong!"
render 'new'
end
end
def edit
end
def update
if #user.update_attributes(user_params)
flash[:success] = "Profile updated"
redirect_to #user
else
render 'edit'
end
end
def destroy
user = User.find(params[:id])
unless current_user?(user)
user.destroy
flash[:success] = "User deleted."
end
redirect_to users_url
end
def following
#title = "Following"
#user = User.find(params[:id])
#users = #user.followed_users.paginate(page: params[:page])
render 'show_follow'
end
def followers
#title = "Followers"
#user = User.find(params[:id])
#users = #user.followers.paginate(page: params[:page])
render 'show_follow'
end
def confirm_email
user = User.find_by_confirm_token(params[:id])
if user
user.email_activate
flash[:success] = "Welcome to the Sample App!"
redirect_to root_url
else
flash[:error] = "Sorry. User does not exist"
redirect_to root_url
end
end
private
def user_params
params.require(:user).permit(:name, :email, :password,
:password_confirmation)
end
# Before filters
def correct_user
#user = User.find(params[:id])
redirect_to(root_url) unless current_user?(#user)
end
def admin_user
redirect_to(root_url) unless current_user.admin?
end
def registered_already
redirect_to root_url, notice: "You are already registered." if signed_in?
end
end
my Sessions Controller
class SessionsController < ApplicationController
def new
end
def create
user = User.find_by_email(params[:email].downcase)
if user && user.authenticate(params[:password])
if user.email_confirmed
sign_in user
redirect_back_or user
else
flash.now[:error] = 'Please activate your account by following the
instructions in the account confirmation email you receieved to proceed'
end
else
flash.now[:error] = 'Invalid email/password combination' # Not quite right!
render 'new'
end
end
def destroy
sign_out
redirect_to root_url
end
end
I have a feeling that the email_activate method in the users model is being called on the create action but I don't know why?....
Just while I was doing this I commented out the `:unless => :email_activate' in the password validator. Now everything works. I am surprised that this was the reason as it does not make logical sense to my (admittedly somewhat limited) understanding of rails. Could someone explain why this was setting the email confirmed field to true please?

Answer 1

If you want the default value to always be set, you can't allow null values. Specify :null => false
add_column :users, :email_confirmed, :boolean, :null => false, :default => false