Rails: trouble with pending / accepted invitations using :conditions hash - ruby-on-rails

Question

I'm currently trying to make an app for uploading pics. there are users, albums, pics. The catch is that there can be multiple owners for each album, so in the form to create an album there is a check box portion where you highlight your friends names and "invite them" to be an owner. However I'm trying to make it so that an invite has to be "accepted" before ownership is shared. I'm trying to do this using a join table (album_user) and having a album and pending_album, which are distinguished by their :status when created
This is my
albums/new.html.erb (no issue here)
<%= form_for ([#user, #album]), :html => { :id => "uploadform" } do |f| %>
<div class="formholder">
<%= f.label :name %>
<%= f.text_field :name %>
<br>
<label>Hosts</label>
<% #user.friends.each do |friend| %>
<%= friend.name %>
<%= check_box_tag 'album[user_ids][]', friend.id, #album.users.include?(friend) %>
<% end %>
<%= f.label :description %>
<%= f.text_area :description %>
<br>
<%=f.submit %>
</div>
<% end %>
albums controller (issue here with status)
def create
#user = User.find(params[:user_id])
#album = #user.albums.build(params[:album].merge(:status => 'accepted'))
#friends = #user.friends.find(params[:album][:user_ids])
if #user.save
for friend in #friends
AlbumUser.create({:user_id => friend.id, :album_id => #album.id, :status => 'pending'})
# friend.albums.build(params[:album].merge(:status => 'pending'))
end
redirect_to user_album_path(#user, #album), notice: 'Album was successfully created.'
else
render action: "new"
end
end
user model
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_secure_password
attr_accessible :email, :name, :password, :password_confirmation, :profilepic
validates_presence_of :password, :on => :create
validates_format_of :name, :with => /[A-Za-z]+/, :on => :create
validates_format_of :email, :with => /\A([^#\s]+)#((?:[-a-z0-9]+\.)+[a-z]{2,})\Z/i, :on => :create
validates_length_of :password, :minimum => 5, :on => :create
# validates :album, :uniqueness => true
has_many :album_users
has_many :albums, :through => :album_users, :conditions => {status: 'accepted'}
has_many :pending_albums, :through => :album_users, :source => :album, :conditions => {status: 'pending'}
accepts_nested_attributes_for :albums
has_many :friendships, :dependent => :destroy
has_many :friends, :through => :friendships, :conditions => "status = 'accepted'"
has_many :requested_friends, :through => :friendships, :source => :friend, :conditions => "status = 'requested'", :order => :created_at
has_many :pending_friends, :through => :friendships, :source => :friend, :conditions => "status = 'pending'", :order => :created_at
has_attached_file :profilepic
before_save { |user| user.email = email.downcase }
def name_with_initial
"#{name}"
end
private
def create_remember_token
self.remember_token = SecureRandom.urlsafe_base64
end
end
album model
class Album < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :name, :description, :user_ids, :status
validates_presence_of :name
has_many :album_users
has_many :users, :through => :album_users
has_many :photos
end
album_user model
class AlbumUser < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :album_id, :user_id, :status
belongs_to :album
belongs_to :user
end
ISSUE HERE: users/show.html.erb (where I have an icon for each album, but it seems like when albums are being created, they aren't saving as pending_albums even though their :status is 'pending'.
<% #user.pending_albums.each do |pending_album| %>
<div class="albumthumb">
<%= link_to image_tag(pending_album.photos ? pending_album.photos.first.avatar.url(:medium) : ("questionmark.png"), :size => "150x150"), user_album_path(#user, pending_album) %>
<br>
<%= pending_album.name %>
<% if signed_in? %>
<%= form_for(:album_user, :url => user_albums_path(:user_id => current_user.id, :album_id => pending_album.id)) do |f| %>
<%= f.submit "Accept Invitation" %>
<% end %>
<% end %>
</div>
<% end %>
<% #user.albums.each do |album| %>
<div class="albumthumb">
<%= link_to image_tag(!album.photos.empty? ? album.photos.first.avatar.url(:medium) : ("questionmark.png"), :size => "150x150"), user_album_path(#user, album) %>
<br>
<%= album.name %>
</div>
<% end %>
my issue is that the albums aren't saving as pending_albums. I thought my :conditions in the user model would help distinguish which are albums and which are pending albums? Everything seems to be falling under albums, even if they are supposed to be pending. Can anyone help?