rails devise user external api - ruby-on-rails

Question

I am trying to setup a newsletter signup procedure when a new user signs up. I am using Mailchimp via gibbon to handle the newsletters. I have added a subscribe attribute to my model and a getter and setter method. I also have added the subscribe checkbox to my form. What I need to do is if the form box is checked subscribe the user to the email on creation.
model
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
# Include default devise modules. Others available are:
# :token_authenticatable, :confirmable,
# :lockable, :timeoutable and :omniauthable
devise :database_authenticatable, :registerable,
:recoverable, :rememberable, :trackable, :validatable
# Setup accessible (or protected) attributes for your model
attr_accessible :email, :password, :password_confirmation, :remember_me, :username, :subscribe
validates :username, presence: true
validates_uniqueness_of :username
has_many :contest_entries, dependent: :destroy
has_many :votes, dependent: :destroy
def subscribe=(join)
puts "called subscribe with #{join}"
if join
Gibbon.new.list_subscribe(:id => "blah", :email_address => self.email)
end
end
def subscribe
subscribe ||= false
end
end
Form view
<h2>Sign up</h2>
<%= form_for(resource, :as => resource_name, :url => registration_path(resource_name)) do |f| %>
<%= devise_error_messages! %>
<p><%= f.label :username %><br />
<%= f.text_field :username %></p>
<div><%= f.label :email %><br />
<%= f.email_field :email %></div>
<div><%= f.label :password %><br />
<%= f.password_field :password %></div>
<div><%= f.label :password_confirmation %><br />
<%= f.password_field :password_confirmation %></div>
<div><%= f.label :subscribe, "Subscribe to Newsletter?" %><br />
<%= f.check_box :subscribe, :checked => true %></div>
<div><%= f.submit "Sign up" %></div>
<% end %>
<%= render "devise/shared/links" %>
I was hoping that by adding the attr_accessible and a method it would call the api from the contoller automatically, but it does not seem to be called.
Any advice on how to handle this? I could also use advice on how to test with RSPEC to make sure it is being called.
Thanks,
Cory

Answer 1

Ok I figured out the issue. The problem was with the check for join inside the setter method. Since it was a checkbox, I needed to check for a matching integer of 1.
def subscribe=(join)
begin
if join.to_i == 1
gb = Gibbon.new
result = gb.list_subscribe(:id => "blah", :email_address => self.email)
end
rescue
false
end
end