Instance of Rails model only creatable through console - ruby-on-rails

Question

I've been following the tutorial on creating a Rails blog (http://www.roberthuberdeau.com/articles/4-How-to-create-a-blog-in-Ruby-on-Rails-3) and have basically got all the way to the end.
However, after all the migrations I'm now struggling. Whenever I complete the form I previously used to create articles, I can't see them on the index page. I've dug around and believe the root of the error is that I'm not saving any articles when I press 'create article'.
To test this, I created an article using the console and this is appearing as it should so I think the problem lies somewhere between the form that creates articles and the controller (though am happy to be corrected on this).
Whenever I try the following appears in the logs:
Started POST "/articles" for 127.0.0.1 at 2013-04-01 21:12:58 +0100
Processing by ArticlesController#create as HTML
Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", "authenticity_token"=>"XLeHm+4Tgd6n9vt4RxAQ5YVTbWTi+UnqkmBso9Iuo+4=", "article"=>{"title"=>"I rule", "body"=>"Change teams.", "tag_names"=>"kill", "published"=>"1"}, "commit"=>"Create Article"}
User Load (0.2ms) SELECT "users".* FROM "users" WHERE "users"."id" = 1 LIMIT 1
Role Load (0.1ms) SELECT "roles".* FROM "roles" INNER JOIN "roles_users" ON "roles"."id" = "roles_users"."role_id" WHERE "roles_users"."user_id" = 1 AND "roles"."name" = 'Admin' LIMIT 1
Role Load (0.1ms) SELECT "roles".* FROM "roles" INNER JOIN "roles_users" ON "roles"."id" = "roles_users"."role_id" WHERE "roles_users"."user_id" = 1 AND "roles"."name" = 'Moderator' LIMIT 1
Role Load (0.1ms) SELECT "roles".* FROM "roles" INNER JOIN "roles_users" ON "roles"."id" = "roles_users"."role_id" WHERE "roles_users"."user_id" = 1 AND "roles"."name" = 'Member' LIMIT 1
Redirected to http://localhost:3000/
Completed 302 Found in 5ms (ActiveRecord: 0.5ms)
With the database schema:
ActiveRecord::Schema.define(:version => 20130401171646) do
create_table "articles", :force => true do |t|
t.string "title"
t.text "body"
t.datetime "created_at", :null => false
t.datetime "updated_at", :null => false
t.integer "user_id", :null => false
t.boolean "published", :default => false
end
create_table "comments", :force => true do |t|
t.integer "article_id"
t.string "name"
t.string "email"
t.text "body"
t.datetime "created_at", :null => false
t.datetime "updated_at", :null => false
end
create_table "roles", :force => true do |t|
t.string "name"
t.datetime "created_at", :null => false
t.datetime "updated_at", :null => false
end
create_table "roles_users", :id => false, :force => true do |t|
t.integer "role_id"
t.integer "user_id"
end
create_table "taggings", :force => true do |t|
t.integer "article_id"
t.integer "tag_id"
t.datetime "created_at", :null => false
t.datetime "updated_at", :null => false
end
create_table "tags", :force => true do |t|
t.string "name"
t.datetime "created_at", :null => false
t.datetime "updated_at", :null => false
end
create_table "users", :force => true do |t|
t.string "email", :default => "", :null => false
t.string "encrypted_password", :default => "", :null => false
t.string "reset_password_token"
t.datetime "reset_password_sent_at"
t.datetime "remember_created_at"
t.integer "sign_in_count", :default => 0
t.datetime "current_sign_in_at"
t.datetime "last_sign_in_at"
t.string "current_sign_in_ip"
t.string "last_sign_in_ip"
t.datetime "created_at", :null => false
t.datetime "updated_at", :null => false
end
add_index "users", ["email"], :name => "index_users_on_email", :unique => true
add_index "users", ["reset_password_token"], :name => "index_users_on_reset_password_token", :unique => true
end
Articles controller:
class ArticlesController < ApplicationController
before_filter :authenticate_user!, :except => [:index, :show]
# GET /articles
# GET /articles.xml
def index
#articles = Article.published.page(params[:page]).per(5).ordered
respond_to do |format|
format.html # index.html.erb
format.xml { render :xml => #articles }
end
end
# GET /articles/1
# GET /articles/1.xml
def show
#article = Article.find(params[:id])
#comment = Comment.new(:article=>#article)
respond_to do |format|
format.html # show.html.erb
format.xml { render :xml => #article }
end
end
# GET /articles/new
# GET /articles/new.xml
def new
#article = Article.new
respond_to do |format|
format.html # new.html.erb
format.xml { render :xml => #article }
end
end
# GET /articles/1/edit
def edit
#article = Article.find(params[:id])
authorize! :edit, #article
end
# POST /articles
# POST /articles.xml
def create
authorize! :create, #article
#article = Article.new(params[:article])
#article.user_id = current_user.id
respond_to do |format|
if #article.save
format.html { redirect_to(#article, :notice => 'Article was successfully created.') }
format.xml { render :xml => #article, :status => :created, :location => #article }
else
format.html { render :action => "new" }
format.xml { render :xml => #article.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
# PUT /articles/1
# PUT /articles/1.xml
def update
#article = Article.find(params[:id])
authorize! :update, #article
respond_to do |format|
if #article.update_attributes(params[:article])
format.html { redirect_to(#article, :notice => 'Article was successfully updated.') }
format.xml { head :ok }
else
format.html { render :action => "edit" }
format.xml { render :xml => #article.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
# DELETE /articles/1
# DELETE /articles/1.xml
def destroy
#article = Article.find(params[:id])
authorize! :destroy, #article
#article.destroy
respond_to do |format|
format.html { redirect_to(articles_url) }
format.xml { head :ok }
end
end
end
Articles model:
class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :body, :title, :tag_names
has_many :comments, :dependent => :destroy
has_many :taggings, :dependent => :destroy
has_many :tags, :through => :taggings
validates_presence_of :title, :body
validates_uniqueness_of :title
attr_writer :tag_names
after_save :assign_tags
validates_numericality_of :user_id
belongs_to :user
scope :published, lambda {{:conditions => ['published = ?', true]}}
scope :ordered, lambda {{:order => "Created_at DESC" }}
def tag_names
#tag_names || tags.map(&:name).join(' ')
end
private
def assign_tags
if #tag_names
self.tags = #tag_names.split(/\,/).map do |name|
Tag.find_or_create_by_name(name)
end
end
end
end
And the form partial used to create the article:
<%= form_for(#article) do |f| %>
<% if #article.errors.any? %>
<div id="error_explanation">
<h2><%= pluralize(#article.errors.count, "error") %> prohibited this article from being saved:</h2>
<ul>
<% #article.errors.full_messages.each do |msg| %>
<li><%= msg %></li>
<% end %>
</ul>
</div>
<% end %>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label :title %><br />
<%= f.text_field :title %>
</div>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label :body %><br />
<%= f.text_area :body %>
</div>
<div class="field">
<%= f.label :tag_names, "Tags" %>
<%= f.text_field :tag_names %>
</div>
<div class="field">
<%= check_box("article", "published" ) %>
<%= "Publish article" %>
</div>
<div class="actions">
<%= f.submit %>
</div>
<% end %>
Any help you can give me on this would be greatly appreciated.
By request:
Ability.rb
class Ability
include CanCan::Ability
def initialize(user)
user ||= User.new # guest user
if user.role? :Admin
can :manage, :all
can :publish, Article
elsif user.role? :Moderator
can :read, [Article, Comment]
can [:edit, :update], Comment
elsif user.role? :Member
can :read, :all
can :create, [Article, Comment]
can [:edit, :update], Comment
end
end
end
p.s. the only other error I can see (and I don't know if it's relevant or a different issue entirely) is that when trying to view an article (show.html.erb) I receive the following error:
Processing by ArticlesController#show as HTML
Parameters: {"id"=>"1"}
Article Load (0.2ms) SELECT "articles".* FROM "articles" WHERE "articles"."id" = ? LIMIT 1 [["id", "1"]]
Completed 500 Internal Server Error in 44ms
ActiveModel::MassAssignmentSecurity::Error (Can't mass-assign protected attributes: article):
app/controllers/articles_controller.rb:18:in `new'
app/controllers/articles_controller.rb:18:in `show'

Answer 1

I'm guessing there's a problem with the authorize! :create, #article line in the ArticleController.create. At the point that that executes, #article isn't created yet.
Judging by the CanCan source, I think the following might do what you want:
def create
authorize! :create, Article
#article = Article.new(params[:article])
#article.user_id = current_user.id
...

Answer 2

The article is not being created because of this.
authorize! :create, #article
You will have to show us your ability model, ability.rb.
You might also want to try the obvious. bundle install and restart the server.