Using Rails ActiveRecord to Query Unsaved Objects - ruby-on-rails

Is it possible to query unsaved changes using Rail's ActiveRecord or another similar approach?
An example of a Ruby interactive session is below. What I'd like to see, is the fourth line show a result of '999' instead of '10'. I'm use to using .NET and Entity Framework where something similar to this was possible. Perhaps in Ruby there is a better or different way to do the same thing. I could obviously add up the sum in a loop, but I find the query syntax more elegant. Any help is appreciated.
i = Inventory.where(:product_id => 1)
i.sum(:available) => 10
i.first.available = 999
i.sum(:available) => 10

No, since sum() is actually translated to SQL and run on the db, you must save the record to the db in order for the query to return the result you want.
Alternatively, you can use the Enumerable#sum method in ActiveSupport, which takes a block, like so:
all = Inventory.where(:product_id => 1).to_a
all.first.available = 999
all.sum(&:available)

Related

What is the best possible way to avoid the sql injection?

I am using ruby 1.8.7 and rails 2.3.2
The following code is prone to sql injection
params[:id] = "1) OR 1=1--"
User.delete_all("id = #{params[:id]}")
My question is by doing the following will be the best solution to avoid sql injection or not. If not then what is the best way to do so?
User.delete_all("id = #{params[:id].to_i}")
What about:
User.where(id: params[:id]).delete_all
Ok sorry for Rails 2.x its:
User.delete_all(["id = ?", params[:id]])
Check doc
Btw, be sure you want to use delete_all instead of destroy_all, the former doesn't trigger callbacks.
You can use this also
User.delete(params[:id])
The other answers answer this well for Rails and it'll work fine if you follow their suggestions. In a more generic setting when you have to handle this yourself you can typically use a regular expression to extract a value that's in an expected format. This is really simple with an integer id. Think of it like this:
if params[:id] =~ /(\d+)/
safe_id = $1.to_i
# do something with safe_id now
end
That gets a little more complicated when you're handling strings and arbitrary data. If you have to handle such data then you can use the quoting methods available for the database adapters. In Rails this is ultimately rolled into a consistent interface:
safe_string = ActiveRecord::Base.connection.quote(unsafe_string)
For most database systems this will handle single quotes and backslashes in a special manner.
If you're outside of Rails you will have to use the quoting methods specific to your database adapter, but usage is quite similar.
The takeaway:
If your data has a particular format, enforce the format with a regular expression
Otherwise, use your database adapter's quoting function to make the data "safe" for use in a query
Rails will handle most of this for you if you properly use the various methods and "conditions"
Use the rails methods to pass your where options. You can always hardcode them, as in the example that you give, but the usual way would be something like:
User.where(:id => params[:id]).delete_all
User.where("id = ?", params[:id]).delete_all
User.where("id = :id", :id => params[:id]).delete_all
They are well tested and in case a new vulnerability is detected, an update will fix the problem and your code will not need to be changed.
By the way, if you just want to delete 1 record based on its id, what I would do is:
User.find(params[:id]).destroy

AcitveRecord where method that matches just one record

Program.where(name: "xxyyzz123") will return a collection, even if there's just one record that matches which forces me to do ugly things like:
puts Program.where(name: "xxyyzz123").first.age
or
puts Program.where(name: "xxyyzz123")[0].age
When I know for sure only one record will match, is there a shorter way to grab a property from that one record?
ActiveRecord's dynamic attribute-based finders (find_by_x) allow you to select the first record that matches in your database. For example:
Program.find_by_name('xxyyzz123')
will return the first record with name = 'xxyyzz123'
Note that these finders are 'mildly deprecated' in Rails 4. Using
Program.find_by(name: 'xxyyzz123")
achieves the same thing and may make it easier when needing to update to the next version of Rails if they ever remove the former's functionality.
See ActiveRecord::Base in the API for more.
Yes, you will have to access that with Program.where(name: "xxyyzz123").first.age, however, in Rails 3, it is usually recommended to do that type of query with: Program.find_by_name('xxyyzz123').age.
Rails 4 deprecates the above syntax and recommends you to use the following syntax for that:
Program.find_by(name: 'xxyyzz123')
If you have multiple conditions, then simply : Program.find_by(name: 'xxyyzz123', lang: 'ruby')
Behind the scene, it does the same tomfoolery - where clause and returns first object.

Adding additional conditions to find_by_id in Rails 3

I'm using Rails 3.2.11 on a Mac
I have this statement that works fine:
object= Object.find_by_id(params[:id])
I'm trying to add a condition to that statement so I did this:
object = Object.where("id = :id AND level <= :level",{:id => params[:id], :level => current_user.level})
Will there be any risk in this method? Any alternatives?
There's no risk presented by this statement, provided that ActiveRecord continues to uphold the contract of sanitizing input. An alternative would be a scope, but that's really just doing the same thing in a different syntax.
One thing you could do is set a default scope that defines the level restriction, then you could just do a standard find_by_id. But if that's undesirable, just use the syntax properly:
Object.where(id: params[:id], level: current_user.level)
There is no risk but the way it is defined is not easy to understand.
The simple statement will work:
object = Object.where("id = ? AND level <= ?",{params[:id], current_user.level})
as long as you let rails handle the sanitizing of your values, you'll have no issues. what i mean by this is run a sql command from rails using user input like
Object.where("id = #{params[:id]} AND level <= #{current_user.level}")
will be vulnerable to sql injection

Using Rails update_all method to update fields with value from another column

I'm trying to update a field in using update_all. However I need the value to be taken from another field which is re-written to my specific format.
If I have something like this in my model:
def self.clean_mac_address()
clean_mac_address = :macaddress.gsub(/[^0-9a-z]/i, '')
end
When I run this:
Radacct.update_all("mac_clean = #{clean_mac_address}")
I get an error:
NoMethodError: undefined method `gsub' for :macaddress:Symbol
Any thoughts how I can do this? Or is there a simpler way to update the field?
update_all generates a single SQL query to run - it can't do clever stuff like change arbitrary bits of ruby into equivalent SQL.
You either need to load all you instances (via find_each for example) and fix them one by one (ie don't use update_all), for example
Foo.find_each do |foo|
# update foo here
foo.save!
end
Or find a way of expressing that cleaning operation in SQL. For example Postgres has a regexp_replace function
Foo.update_all("some_column = regexp_replace(some_column, 'your_regexp_here', '','g')")
Which would remove everything replacing that regexp. Obviously you'll need to check the documentation for your database to see whether it supports such a feature.
While the accepted answer provides a nice way to update_all, what I'd use is
read_with_clean_addr = Radacct.where(mac_clean: :macaddress.gsub(/[^0-9a-z]/i, ''))
read_with_clean_add.update_all(mac_clean: "#{clean_mac_address}")

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

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