Automatically mapping associations in Mongoid using params - ruby-on-rails

I'm using Mongoid and when I .update_attributes on a model that has a references_one using params[:model_name] I get the error...
#model.update_attributes(params[:model_name])
undefined method `associations' for "...":String
I understand why this is happening. Mongoid is trying to map that .association_name to the string value in the params hash when what it wants is a reference to another Mongoid::Document. That I get.
What I'd like to know is if there is a global way to fix this. For the moment I've gotten around this issue by doing something like the following...
model_params = params[:model_name]
if model_params.has_key? :relationship
model_params[:relationship] = RelatedModel.first(:conditions => { :_id => model_params[:relationship] })
end
This works but I'd rather have a fix that fixes it every time so that I'm not manually mapping the related model every time I do an update. That would defiantly be a violation of DRY.

Here's sample module that you could include in all your models
module MyAppBase
def my_update_attributes(model_params,related_model)
if model_params.has_key? :relationship
model_params[:relationship] = related_model.first(:conditions => { :_id => model_params[:relationship] })
end
self.update_attributes(model_params)
end
end
#include it in your model classes
class MyModel < ActiveRecord::Base
include MyAppBase
#normal model code
end

Related

Uniqueness error in has_many nested attributes

I have a class student with has_many tests. The test class has a student_id, marks, name. Here the test name should be unique. The test is a nested attribute for student. So the parameters are this way:
:student => {:first_name => "abc",
:email => "dfsdf#sfdsdsd.bbb",
:tests_attributes => { "0" => {:name => "bgc", :marks => "470"}}}
I have a problem with update. If I update_attributes with the tests_attributes, it throws a validation error saying the name for test is not unique. I am actually addressing the same record here. How do I overcome this?
Without seeing your models (& validations), it's going to be quite difficult to diagnose your error directly.
--
Nested Attributes
We've done something like this, and found that your nested data is passed to the child model as if it were receiving a new object (without being nested). This means if you've got validates uniqueness for that model, it should be okay:
#app/models/test.rb
Class Test < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :student
validates :name, uniqueness: true
end
Reason I write this is because there's a method called inverse_of, which basically allows you to access the parent model data in your child model
--
Update
I think the problem will likely lie with your use of update_attributes. Problem being you're trying to update both the student and the test attributes at one time.
I'm not sure exactly why this would be a problem, but I'd test this:
#app/controllers/students_controller.rb
class StudentsController < ApplicationController
def update
#student = Student.find params[:id]
#student.test.update(name: params[:test_name], marks: params[:marks])
end
end
I think if you can explain your methodology a little more, it will be much more helpful. I.E are you trying to update student or test? If you're updating student & adding a new test, how are you updating the studet?
Thanks for the reply guys. I ended up finding the answer myself. I did have a uniqueness validation for name.
I had a situation where initially I wouldn't know the student but have only his details. So I would have to create this hash and pass it to update. The trick to not trying to create a new record for the same name in test is to pass the actual record's ID along with it. This solved the problem
Nested Attributes
I think the problem with nested_attributes. For update need to pass nested_attributes with ID.
Ex.
:student => {:first_name => "abc",
:email => "dfsdf#sfdsdsd.bbb",
:tests_attributes => { "0" => {id: 1, :name => "bgc", :marks => "470"}}}
I have tried below-given example it is worked for me:
Update
#app/controllers/students_controller.rb
class StudentsController < ApplicationController
def update
#student = Student.find params[:id]
#student.update_attributes(student_params)
end
private
def student_params
params.require(:student).permit(:first_name, :email,
tests_attributes: [:id, :name, :marks])
end
end

How do I create custom "association methods" in Rails 3?

I've read this article, but it's for Rails 1.x.
I'd really like to create my own association methods:
user = User.find(1)
# Example of a normal association method
user.replies.create(:body => 'very informative. plz check out my site.')
# My association method
user.replies.find_by_spamminess(:likelihood => :very)
In Rails 3, what's the proper way of doing this?
The Rails 3 way of doing things is often to not use find methods, but rather scopes, which delays the actual database call until you start iterating over the collection.
Guessing at your first example, I would do:
in class Reply ...
scope :spaminess, lambda {|s| where(:likelyhood => s) }
and then using it:
spammy_messages = user.replies.spaminess(:very)
or to use it in a view
spammy_messages.each do |reply|
....
end
I think I found it!
If you search for "association extensions" the Rails API page for ActiveRecord::Assications, you'll see that this is the syntax (copied from that link):
class Account < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :people do
def find_or_create_by_name(name)
first_name, last_name = name.split(" ", 2)
find_or_create_by_first_name_and_last_name(first_name, last_name)
end
end
end

as_json not calling as_json on associations

I have a model with data that should never be included when it is rendered as json. So I implemented the class' as_json method to behave appropriately. The problem is when other models with associations with this model render json, my custom as_json is not being called.
class Owner < ActiveRecord::Base
has_one :dog
def as_json(options={})
puts "Owner::as_json"
super(options)
end
end
class Dog < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :owner
def as_json(options={})
puts "Dog::as_json"
options[:except] = :secret
super(options)
end
end
Loading development environment (Rails 3.0.3)
ruby-1.9.2-p136 :001 > d = Dog.first
=> #<Dog id: 1, owner_id: 1, name: "Scooby", secret: "I enjoy crapping everwhere">
ruby-1.9.2-p136 :002 > d.as_json
Dog::as_json
=> {"dog"=>{"id"=>1, "name"=>"Scooby", "owner_id"=>1}}
ruby-1.9.2-p136 :004 > d.owner.as_json(:include => :dog)
Owner::as_json
=> {"owner"=>{"id"=>1, "name"=>"Shaggy", :dog=>{"id"=>1, "name"=>"Scooby", "owner_id"=>1, "secret"=>"I enjoy crapping everwhere"}}}
Thanks for the help
This is a known bug in Rails. (The issue is marked closed due to the migration to Github issues from the previous bug tracker, but it's still a problem as of Rails 3.1.)
As acknowledged above, this is an issue with the Rails base. The rails patch here is not yet applied and seems at least slightly controversial, so I'm hesitant to apply it locally. Even if applied as a monkey patch it could potentially complicate future rails upgrades.
I'm still considering RABL suggested above, it looks useful. For the moment, I'd rather not add another view templating language into my app. My current needs are very small.
So here's a workaround which doesn't require a patch and work for most simple cases. This works where the association's as_json method you'd like to have called looks like
def as_json(options={})
super( <... custom options ...> )
end
In my case I've got Schedule model which has many Events
class Event < ActiveRecord::Base
# define json options as constant, or you could return them from a method
EVENT_JSON_OPTS = { :include => { :locations => { :only => [:id], :methods => [:name] } } }
def as_json(options={})
super(EVENT_JSON_OPTS)
end
end
class Schedule < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :events
def as_json(options={})
super(:include => { :events => { Event::EVENT_JSON_OPTS } })
end
end
If you followed the guideline that anytime you :include an association in your as_json() methods, you define any options you need as a constant in the model to be referenced, this would work for arbitrary levels of associations. NOTE I only needed the first level of association customized in the above example.
I've found that serializable_hash works just as you'd expect as_json to work, and is always called:
def serializable_hash(options = {})
result = super(options)
result[:url] = "http://.."
result
end
I ran into the same issue. I wanted this to work:
render :json => #favorites.as_json(:include => :location)
But it didn't so I ended up adding an index.json.erb with the following:
<% favs = #favorites.as_json.each do |fav| %>
<% fav["location"] = Location.find(fav["location_id"]).as_json %>
<% end %>
<%= favs.to_json.html_safe %>
Not a fix - just a work around. I imagine you did the same thing.
Update #John pointed out this is a known bug in Rails. A patch to fix it appears to be: at https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/2200. Nevertheless, you might try RABL, because its sweet.
I've always been frustrated with passing a complex set of options to create the JSON views I want. Your problem, which I experienced with Mongoid in Rails 3.0.9, prompted me to write JSON templates. But actually, if you're dealing with relations or custom api properties, it turns out that templates are way nicer.
Besides, dealing with different outputs seems like the View layer to me, so I settled on using RABL, the API templating language. It makes it super easy to build valid JSON and include any associations or fields.
Not a solution to the problem, but a better solution for the use case.
This was reported as a bug: http://ternarylabs.com/2010/09/07/migrating-to-rails-3-0-gotchas-as_json-bug/

ActiveRecord serialize using JSON instead of YAML

I have a model that uses a serialized column:
class Form < ActiveRecord::Base
serialize :options, Hash
end
Is there a way to make this serialization use JSON instead of YAML?
In Rails 3.1 you can just
class Form < ActiveRecord::Base
serialize :column, JSON
end
In Rails 3.1 you can use custom coders with serialize.
class ColorCoder
# Called to deserialize data to ruby object.
def load(data)
end
# Called to convert from ruby object to serialized data.
def dump(obj)
end
end
class Fruits < ActiveRecord::Base
serialize :color, ColorCoder.new
end
Hope this helps.
References:
Definition of serialize:
https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb#L556
The default YAML coder that ships with rails:
https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/activerecord/lib/active_record/coders/yaml_column.rb
And this is where the call to the load happens:
https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/activerecord/lib/active_record/attribute_methods/read.rb#L132
Update
See mid's high rated answer below for a much more appropriate Rails >= 3.1 answer. This is a great answer for Rails < 3.1.
Probably this is what you're looking for.
Form.find(:first).to_json
Update
1) Install 'json' gem:
gem install json
2) Create JsonWrapper class
# lib/json_wrapper.rb
require 'json'
class JsonWrapper
def initialize(attribute)
#attribute = attribute.to_s
end
def before_save(record)
record.send("#{#attribute}=", JsonWrapper.encrypt(record.send("#{#attribute}")))
end
def after_save(record)
record.send("#{#attribute}=", JsonWrapper.decrypt(record.send("#{#attribute}")))
end
def self.encrypt(value)
value.to_json
end
def self.decrypt(value)
JSON.parse(value) rescue value
end
end
3) Add model callbacks:
#app/models/user.rb
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
before_save JsonWrapper.new( :name )
after_save JsonWrapper.new( :name )
def after_find
self.name = JsonWrapper.decrypt self.name
end
end
4) Test it!
User.create :name => {"a"=>"b", "c"=>["d", "e"]}
PS:
It's not quite DRY, but I did my best. If anyone can fix after_find in User model, it'll be great.
My requirements didn't need a lot of code re-use at this stage, so my distilled code is a variation on the above answer:
require "json/ext"
before_save :json_serialize
after_save :json_deserialize
def json_serialize
self.options = self.options.to_json
end
def json_deserialize
self.options = JSON.parse(options)
end
def after_find
json_deserialize
end
Cheers, quite easy in the end!
The serialize :attr, JSON using composed_of method works like this:
composed_of :auth,
:class_name => 'ActiveSupport::JSON',
:mapping => %w(url to_json),
:constructor => Proc.new { |url| ActiveSupport::JSON.decode(url) }
where url is the attribute to be serialized using json
and auth is the new method available on your model that saves its value in json format to the url attribute. (not fully tested yet but seems to be working)
I wrote my own YAML coder, that takes a default. Here is the class:
class JSONColumn
def initialize(default={})
#default = default
end
# this might be the database default and we should plan for empty strings or nils
def load(s)
s.present? ? JSON.load(s) : #default.clone
end
# this should only be nil or an object that serializes to JSON (like a hash or array)
def dump(o)
JSON.dump(o || #default)
end
end
Since load and dump are instance methods it requires an instance to be passed as the second argument to serialize in the model definition. Here's an example of it:
class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
validate :name, :pets, :presence => true
serialize :pets, JSONColumn.new([])
end
I tried creating a new instance, loading an instance, and dumping an instance in IRB, and it all seemed to work properly. I wrote a blog post about it, too.
A simpler solution is to use composed_of as described in this blog post by Michael Rykov. I like this solution because it requires the use of fewer callbacks.
Here is the gist of it:
composed_of :settings, :class_name => 'Settings', :mapping => %w(settings to_json),
:constructor => Settings.method(:from_json),
:converter => Settings.method(:from_json)
after_validation do |u|
u.settings = u.settings if u.settings.dirty? # Force to serialize
end
Aleran, have you used this method with Rails 3? I've somewhat got the same issue and I was heading towards serialized when I ran into this post by Michael Rykov, but commenting on his blog is not possible, or at least on that post. To my understanding he is saying that you do not need to define Settings class, however when I try this it keeps telling me that Setting is not defined. So I was just wondering if you have used it and what more should have been described? Thanks.

setting new default properties for to_xml serializer in Rails

In Rails, I'm coding a series of controllers to generate XML. Each time I'm passing a number of properties in to to_xml like:
to_xml(:skip_types => true, :dasherize => false)
Is there a way I can set these as new default properties that will apply whenever to_xml is called in my app so that I don't have to repeat myself?
Are you calling to_xml on a hash or an ActiveRecord model (or something else)?
I am not that you would want to, but you can easily monkey patch to_xml and redefine it to start with those parameters. I would suggest that you make a new method to_default_xml that simply called to_xml with the parameters you wanted
def to_default_xml
self.to_xml(:skip_types => true, :dasherize => false)
end
Update:
Since you want to add this to a couple of ActiveRecord models you could do two things, open up ActiveRecord::base (which is a bit hackish and fragile) or create a module and import it into every model you want to use with it. A little more typing, but much cleaner code.
I would put a class in lib/ that looks something like this:
module DefaultXml
def to_default_xml
self.to_xml(:skip_types => true, :dasherize => false)
end
end
Then in your models:
class MyModel < ActiveRecord::Base
include DefaultXml
end
I put together a plugin to handle default serialization options. Check it out at github.com/laserlemon/dry_serial/tree/master.
class MyModel < ActiveRecord::Base
dry_serial :skip_types => true, :dasherize => false
end
It also has support for multiple serialization styles that can be called like:
#my_model.to_xml(:skinny)
#my_model.to_xml(:fat)
Assuming you're talking about AR's to_xml method and depending on your needs, you could get away with extending the AcitveRecord class by creating a file named: lib\class_extensions.rb
class ActiveRecord::Base
def to_xml_default
self.to_xml(:skip_types => true, :dasherize => false)
end
end
Next, put this in an initializer, so that it's included when Rails starts up:
require 'class_extensions'
Now, you can use it as follows (w/o having to specifically include it in each model):
MyModel.to_xml_default

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