Is there a way to skip serialization in Rails 3.1? - ruby-on-rails

In my Rails 3.1 application, I need to read the raw data of a field, without serialization, and then write it down without serialization. Is this possible? How?
By serialization I mean
class Tenant
serialize :profile_template
end
I obviously can access the field like this:
> t.profile_template
=> [{:title=>"Page 1", ....}]
I then also tried with read_attribute_before_type_cast (as per lucapette's suggestion):
> t.read_attribute_before_type_cast(:profile_template)
=> nil
Using a string instead of a symbol had a different but disappointing result:
> t.read_attribute_before_type_cast("profile_template")
=> [{:title=>"Page 1", ...}]
and same with the attribute name:
> t.profile_template_before_type_cast
=> [{:title=>"Page 1", ...}]
Just for the record, what I was expecting is:
"---
- :title: Page 1
...."
In all samples, ... is the rest of a very long structure.

Yes there is a way. You have to use
read_attribute_before_type_cast(:foo)
where :foo is the name of the field. The doc is not that good about that but I remember that there is a good explanation about it in The Rails 3 way.
EDIT
Although you're saying that this way isn't working for you I re-read the piece of information from the above-mentioned book. Well, there's another way of doing that. You can use
bar = foo_before_type_cast
where foo is the name of the field. It works like magic finders, pre-pending the name of the field to _before_type_cast . I can't try it right now but it really should work fine.

Related

Dynamic Method Calls on Rails Association

Given an array like this:
%w{ field_one, field_two, some_association.field_one }
I need to iterate over this and dynamically call these methods on a given object, exactly as described here: Ruby send method with rails associations
So far I have this, which does fetch the values correctly:
field.include?('.') ? field.split('.').inject(some_object, :send) : some_object.send(field)
Additionally though, I need to call :human_attribute_name on the correct class to generate labels. What is a clean way to accomplish this?
It's not clear what you're trying to accomplish but if I had to guess I'd say you're trying to make some kind of CMS or reporting system in which the definition of what data to display can be altered through a user interface. There are gems for this kind of thing but seeing as you're on this track...
By :human_attribute_name I assume you mean the friendly name to be displayed on the page as a label. First of all it would be more appropriate to use a string rather than symbol as you can then use spaces and more characters. Assuming you never intend to have duplicate label names on the same webpage you could try using a hash instead of an array.
fields = {
"Field One" => "field_one" ,
"Field Two" => "field_two" ,
"Field One Of Some Association" => "some_association.field_one"
}
and then fetch the data in a similar way to that shown in the answer you referenced.
data = {}
fields.each_pair do | friendly_name, attribute |
data[friendly_name] = if attribute.include?('.')
attribute.split('.').inject(some_object, :send)
else
some_object.send(attribute)
end
end
That should leave you with a hash you can loop over in your view like this
{
"Field One" => "Mr" ,
"Field Two" => "Data",
"Field One Of Some Association" => "A Friend Of Mr Data"
}

Couchdb finder using CouchRest

I just want to know how can I build a find_all_by_action_and_author_id method in Rails with while using the couchdb. My Model looks like this:
class Activity < CouchRest::Model::Base
property :action, String
property :author_id, String
end
if I try to build a View like that:
design do
view :by_action_and_author_id
end
I dont know how to get the right result, I tried it with this:
Activity.by_action_and_author_id(:keys => [['action','foo'], ['author_id', '1']]).all
But the result is always a empty hash. What is the best way to do this? Any examples?
With PostgreSQL it would look like this
Activity.where(action: 'foo', author_id: '1').all
it cant be so complicated
Thanx
have a look at the generated couchdb-view! you can see which keys get emitted. there is no thing as a mapping there, so i think that [['action','foo'], ['author_id', '1']] should be just ['foo', '1'].
i do not know for sure how couchrest-models handles views, but you can find more infos here: http://www.couchrest.info/model/view_objects.html
have a look at the tag-example.

Rails: Getting column value from query

Seems like it should be able to look at a simple tutorial or find an aswer with a quick google, but I can't...
codes = PartnerCode.find_by_sql "SELECT * from partner_codes where product = 'SPANMEX' and isused = 'false' limit 1"
I want the column named code, I want just the value. Tried everything what that seems logical. Driving me nuts because everything I find shows an example without referencing the actual values returned
So what is the object returned? Array, hash, ActiveRecord? Thanks in advance.
For Rails 4+ (and a bit earlier I think), use pluck:
Partner.where(conditions).pluck :code
> ["code1", "code2", "code3"]
map is inefficient as it will select all columns first and also won't be able to optimise the query.
You need this one
Partner.where( conditions ).map(&:code)
is shorthand for
Partner.where( conditions ).map{|p| p.code}
PS
if you are often run into such case you will like this gem valium by ernie
it gives you pretty way to get values without instantiating activerecord object like
Partner.where( conditions ).value_of :code
UPDATED:
if you need access some attribute and after that update record
save instance first in some variable:
instance=Partner.where( conditions ).first
then you may access attributes like instance.code and update some attribute
instance.update_attribute || instance.update_attributes
check documentation at api.rubyonrails.org for details

Nested model error messages

I am using Ruby on Rails 3.0.9 and I am trying to validate a nested model. Supposing that I run validation for the "main" model and that generates some errors for the nested model I get the following:
#user.valid?
#user.errors.inspect
# => {:"account.firstname"=>["is too short", "can not be blank"], :"account.lastname"=>["is too short", "can not be blank"], :account=>["is invalid"]}
How you can see the RoR framework creates an errors hash having following keys: account.firstname, account.lastname, account. Since I would like to display error messages on the front-end content by handling those error key\value pairs with JavaScript (BTW: I use jQuery) that involves CSS properties I thought to "prepare" that data and to change those keys to account_firstname, account_lastname, account (note: I substitute the . with the _ character).
How can I change key values from, for example, account.firstname to account_firstname?
And, mostly important, how I should handle this situation? Is what I am trying to do a "good" way to handle nested model errors? If no, what is the common\best approach to do that?
I've made a quick Concern which shows full error messages for nested models:
https://gist.github.com/4710856
#1.9.3-p362 :008 > s.all_full_error_messages
# => ["Purchaser can't be blank", "Consumer email can't be blank", "Consumer email is invalid", "Consumer full name can't be blank"]
Some creative patching of the Rails errors hash will let you achieve your aim. Create an initializer in config/initalizers, let call it errors_hash_patch.rb and put the following in it:
ActiveModel::Errors.class_eval do
def [](attribute)
attribute = attribute.to_sym
dotted_attribute = attribute.to_s.gsub("_", ".").to_sym
attribute_result = get(attribute)
dotted_attribute_result = get(dotted_attribute)
if attribute_result
attribute_result
elsif dotted_attribute_result
dotted_attribute_result
else
set(attribute, [])
end
end
end
All you're doing in here is simply overriding the accessor method [] to try a little harder. More specifically, if the key you're looking for has underscores, it will try to look it up as is, but if it can't find anything it will also replace all the underscores with dots and try to look that up as well. Other than that the behaviour is the same as the regular [] method. For example, let's say you have an errors hash like the one from your example:
errors = {:"account.firstname"=>["is too short", "can not be blank"], :"account.lastname"=>["is too short", "can not be blank"], :account=>["is invalid"]}
Here are some of the ways you can access it and the results that come back:
errors[:account] => ["is invalid"]
errors[:"account.lastname"] => ["is too short", "can not be blank"]
errors[:account_lastname] => ["is too short", "can not be blank"]
errors[:blah] => []
We don't change the way the keys are stored in the errors hash, so we won't accidentally break libraries and behaviours that may rely on the format of the the hash. All we're doing is being a little smarter regarding how we access the data in the hash. Of course, if you DO want to change the data in the hash, the pattern is the same you will just need to override the []= method, and every time rails tries to store keys with dots in them, just change the dots to underscores.
As to your second question, even though I have shown you how to do what you're asking, in general it is best to try and comply with the way rails tries to do things, rather than trying to bend rails to your will. In your case, if you want to display the error messages via javascript, presumably your javascript will have access to a hash of error data, so why not tweak this data with javascript to be in the format that you need it to be. Alternatively you may clone the error data inside a controller and tweak it there (before your javascript ever has access to it). It is difficult to give advice without knowing more about your situation (how are you writing your forms, what exactly is your validation JS trying to do etc.), but those are some general guidelines.
I had the same problem with AngularJs, so I decided to overwrite the as_json method for the ActiveModel::Errors class in an initializer called active_model_errors.rb so that it can replace . for _
Here is the initializer code:
module ActiveModel
class Errors
def as_json(options=nil)
hash = {}
to_hash(options && options[:full_messages]).each{ |k,v| hash[k.to_s.sub('.', '_')] = messages[k] }
hash
end
end
end
I hope it can be helpful for someone
I'm not sure but I think you can't change that behavior without pain. But you could give a try to solutions like http://bcardarella.com/post/4211204716/client-side-validations-3-0

Parse a string as if it were a querystring in Ruby on Rails

I have a string like this:
"foo=bar&bar=foo&hello=hi"
Does Ruby on Rails provide methods to parse this as if it is a querystring, so I get a hash like this:
{
:foo => "bar",
:bar => "foo",
:hello => "hi"
}
Or must I write it myself?
EDIT
Please note that the string above is not a real querystring from a URL, but rather a string stored in a cookie from Facebook Connect.
The answer depends on the version of Rails that you are using. If you are using 2.3 or later, use Rack's builtin parser for params
Rack::Utils.parse_nested_query("a=2") #=> {"a" => "2"}
If you are on older Rails, you can indeed use CGI::parse. Note that handling of hashes and arrays differs in subtle ways between modules so you need to verify whether the data you are getting is correct for the method you choose.
You can also include Rack::Utils into your class for shorthand access.
The
CGI::parse("foo=bar&bar=foo&hello=hi")
Gives you
{"foo"=>["bar"], "hello"=>["hi"], "bar"=>["foo"]}
Edit:
As specified by Ryan Long this version accounts for multiple values of the same key, which is useful if you want to parse arrays too.
Edit 2:
As Ben points out, this may not handle arrays well when they are formatted with ruby on rails style array notation.
The rails style array notation is: foo[]=bar&foo[]=nop. That style is indeed handled correctly with Julik's response.
This version will only parse arrays correctly, if you have the params like foo=bar&foo=nop.
Edit : as said in the comments, symolizing keys can bring your server down if someone want to hurt you. I still do it a lot when I work on low profile apps because it makes things easier to work with but I wouldn't do it anymore for high stake apps
Do not forget to symbolize the keys for obtaining the result you want
Rack::Utils.parse_nested_query("a=2&b=tralalala").deep_symbolize_keys
this operation is destructive for duplicates.
If you talking about the Urls that is being used to get data about the parameters them
> request.url
=> "http://localhost:3000/restaurants/lokesh-dhaba?data=some&more=thisIsMore"
Then to get the query parameters. use
> request.query_parameters
=> {"data"=>"some", "more"=>"thisIsMore"}
If you want a hash you can use
Hash[CGI::parse(x).map{|k,v| [k, v.first]}]

Resources