Recent notes

How to include a “Please select…” (default/prompt) in a grouped dropdown list.

The clue here is that you actually specify the prompt on the select element, and not in the option_groups_from_collection_for_select element.

<%= f.select :post_type_id,   option_groups_from_collection_for_select(@categories, :post_types, :name, :id, :name), :include_blank => "Please select..." %>

Hope this helps someone.

Total Unique Elements from Two Arrays

Simple but thought it was worth mentioning:

( [ 1, 2, 3 ] + [ 3, 4, 5 ] ).uniq    #=> [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ]

Usage

I use this in views when I need to join a array of objects from a sql request here is a basic version of what I mean.

Code example

<%= @blogs.map{ |blog| blog.comment }.join(“ | ”) %>

Links and basic explanation

This function, available on any Base derived class, allows eager loading. So when iterating over a result, all the data can be pre-cached, reducing the number of queries from 1+x to 2.

Several ways to use this include:

Post.includes(:author).where(..)

Post.includes([:author, :comments]).where(..)

Post.includes( :comments => :replies ).where(..)

The result is a Relation, so where and other function may be called.

.includes(:comments).to_a is the same as , .find(:all, :includes => :comments)

Some good documentation here: http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Associations/ClassMethods.html

Apperently one can get similar results by using joins, but i’m not expert on joins, so please ammend and read: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_record_querying.html

Recommendations

I would just use the path_to_image. I find that this is what works best. As it says above it can create problems.

Here is my code

Code example

def background_path(background)
  if background
    path_to_image background.file_name.normal
  else
    path_to_image "background_preview.jpg"
  end
end

def flavor_path(flavor)
  if flavor
    path_to_image flavor.file_name.normal
  else
    path_to_image("flavor_preview.jpg")
  end
end

basic but gets the job done and it does not have problem with my pre built paths which are called image_path

See also: sample

sample randomly picks 1 or n elements from the array

Use kill 0 to find out if process is running

is_running.rb:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

pid = ARGV[0].to_i

begin
  Process.kill(0, pid)
  puts "#{pid} is running"
rescue Errno::EPERM                     # changed uid
  puts "No permission to query #{pid}!";
rescue Errno::ESRCH
  puts "#{pid} is NOT running.";      # or zombied
rescue
  puts "Unable to determine status for #{pid} : #{$!}"
end

Thanks to http://stackoverflow.com/a/200568/51209

example

[‘one’,‘two’,‘three’].to_sentence # => “one, two, and three”

Need to extend class when using this

I had to dig around to find this out - if you want to use memoize somewhere, like an ActiveRecord model, you need to add

extend ActiveSupport::Memoizable

to the class. This doesn’t seem to be explained anywhere (the only docs are 3 year old blog posts anyway).

hidden field can be changed by JS

Plumba, it’s not that useless if you think about possibility to change a hidden field with JS

Not available

Actually, this method is not available now.(github.com/ruby/ruby/blob/trunk/rational.c#L2352)

Difference in DateTimes ...

Mostly, the database date columns are DateTime instances. Whereas Rails adds several useful utility functions to DateTime (in activesupport), there is some confusing behavior. This is at least somewhat surprising.

Two subtract two DateTime instances, you should always “round” the returned value. Suppose:

d1 = DateTime.now d2 = d1 - 5.days.ago

then, d1 - d2 is a Rational, which tells you the difference between dates only after rounding. Thus, diff_in_days = (d1 - d2).round

This method isn't deprecated

This method was moved to AbstractController::Callbacks, as stated on [1].

It took me a while to figure out ‘what should I use instead before_filter’. Hope this helps anyone that hits the same road I’m in.

1

• http://stackoverflow.com/a/7129460/1040571

index doesn't work

@ssoroka even I’m having same issue. how did you resolve it?

Custom configuration keys

It is nice to know, that you can store any custom configuration key in configure block… E.g.

YourApp::Application.configure do
   # ...
   config.my_custom_setting = "QWERTY1234"
end

Then you can just access it by calling

YourApp::Application.config.my_custom_setting

Rails 3.1 - Use request.url instead

As request.request_uri has been deprecated, use

request.url

instead.

Change in clone for ActiveRecord objects in ruby-1.9.3

I noticed that cloning an active record object in ruby-1.9.3 and then changing an attribute on the original object will actually change the cloned object as well. This was not the case in ruby-1.9.2.

Alternative definition

a.flat_map(&b) works exactly like a.map(&b).flatten!(1).

Examples in a readable format :)

Here are the above examples in a somewhat more readable format:

# Assert a basic route: a controller with the default action (index) 
assert_routing ‘/home’, :controller => ‘home’, :action => ‘index’
# Test a route generated with a specific controller, action, and parameter (id) 
assert_routing ‘/entries/show/23’, :controller => ‘entries’, :action => ‘show’, :id => 23
# Assert a basic route (controller + default action), with an error message if it fails 
assert_routing ‘/store’, 
               { :controller => ‘store’, :action => ‘index’ }, 
               {}, 
               {}, 
               ‘Route for store index not generated properly’
# Tests a route, providing a defaults hash 
assert_routing ‘controller/action/9’, 
               {:id => “9”, :item => “square”}, 
               {:controller => “controller”, :action => “action”}, 
               {}, 
               {:item => “square”}
# Tests a route with a HTTP method 
assert_routing({ :method => ‘put’, :path => ‘/product/321’ }, 
               { :controller => “product”, :action => “update”, :id => “321” })

Wrapping with select tag

I didn’t knew how to wrap the output with <select> tag. I didn’t want to use raw html, but the doc doesn’t mention another way.

So, here is what I tried and it’s working:

<%= f.select :entry, option_groups_from_collection_for_select(@categories, :entries, :name, :id, :name) %>

I hope this helps anyone. :-)

Rails

For Rails 3.1 check see:

http_basic_authenticate_with :name => "username", :password => "pass" 

Specify attachment names

If you want to give your attachment a name, you can do this:

attachment :filename => 'my_file.txt', :body => File.read('/var/null')

It will appear to the recipient as a file named “my_file.txt” rather than something awful like “noname 1”.

Catching and throwing -- don't!

@wiseleyb and @glosakti, neither of your suggestions are necessary, and both are bad practices.

This test:

test "transactions" do
  assert_raises ZeroDivisionError do
    User.transaction do
      1/0
    end
  end
end

passes just fine on its own, with the transaction rolled back as you’d expect. No need to hack something ugly together.

logic in class/id

If you need to place some simple logic in class or like that, I think that best to make it with simple brackets:

Code example

<%= link_to ‘All actions’, switch_action_tab_path, :remote => true, :class => (‘selected’ if @tab == ‘all’) %>

unscoped.all / unscoped.count

At least in console, doing unscoped.all or unscoped.count initially returns expected results but, after you’ve added new records outside of the default_scope those two calls seem to use some cached values.

Therefore it should always be used with the block (as they sort of imply in the doc). unscoped { all } and unscoped {count }

Removed in 3.1.x

This method (and #auto_link_urls) has been removed in Rails 3.1 - other options are out there, such as Rinku, however there is a gem you can use for migration purposes etc, which is rails_autolink: http://rubygems.org/gems/rails_autolink

active_link_to helper gem

You should also have a look at github.com/twg/active_link_to if you need an ‘active’ class on your links.

:prefix option

See also http://apidock.com/rails/ActionView/Helpers/DateHelper/select_month#238–prefix-option

:prefix option

See also http://apidock.com/rails/ActionView/Helpers/DateHelper/select_month#238–prefix-option

Adding to the URL

If you want to use polymorphic routing for your object but you also need to specify other stuff like an anchor, you can explicitly generate the polymorphic url with extra options:

form_for @candidate,
  :url => polymorphic_path(@candidate, :anchor => 'signup')