Notes posted to Ruby on Rails

Specify :host option in emails

Emails need a fully qualified URL (with domain). Use the :host parameter.

But note also that you need to specify a value that is not dependent upon the request context. http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionMailer/Base.html recommends setting a default host in application.rb For those of us who have development, test, staging and production environments, set in the environment-specific files, or in the :default hash in the mailer.

This applies to both +url_for(:host => “example.com”)+ and when using named routes as in +widgets_url(:host => “example.com”)+

Rails Guides

There is an excellent guide on the use of this method located here:

http://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_record_querying.html#conditions

Using Amazon Simple Email Service with ActionMailer

First of all, get all the necessary SES credentials and verify your email address.

Then, just edit your config/environments/*.rb files:

config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :smtp
config.action_mailer.smtp_settings = {
    address: 'email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com',
    user_name: 'your-ses-smtp-user-name',
    password: 'your-ses-smtp-password',
    authentication: :login,
    enable_starttls_auto: true
}

And that’s it!

in rails3 StatusCodes have been moved to Rack::Utils

in rails3 StatusCodes have been moved to Rack::Utils

To use class attribute with a hash

You can use a setter with merge:

self.settings = settings.merge(key => value)

On destroying data

Reply to tvle83 and pgmcgee: the destructiveness of this method depends on your database. Some databases are better at converting between disparate types than others. For example, when changing a column from a numeric type to a string type, some databases drop the data where others will turn the numbers into their string representations.

Essentially, YMMV.

a misprint?

In section ‘Bi-directional associations’ an example:

d = Dungeon.first

t = d.traps.first

d.level == t.dungeon.level # => true

d.level = 10

d.level == t.dungeon.level # => false

Then use has_many associations, but lower than written ‘for belongs_to associations has_many inverse associations are ignored.’

rest of code is in Object#try

The logic for #try is shared between this method and Object#try – “Show source” here doesn’t show the whole story. Both methods are currently implemented in the file activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/try.rb .

rest of code is in NilClass#try

If you click “Show source” here, you may get confused. The logic for #try is shared between this method and NilClass#try . Both versions are currently implemented in the file activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/try.rb .

Replacement

Replacement

# Method using returning can replaced
def foo
  returning Hash.new do |h|
    h[:foo] = "bar"
  end
end
# By method using tap  
def foo
  Hash.new.tap do |h|
    h[:foo] = "bar"
  end
end

Skipping validation - follow up

For Rails 2.x use #save(false) for Rails 3.x use #save(:validate => false)

Set ids when using a collection of values (cont.)

Regarding schmidt’s post.

The following will not have the expected behavior:

<% Car.each do |c| %>
  <%= check_box_tag "car_ids[]", c.id, :id => "car_ids_#{c.id}" %>
<% end %>

But, if you put the “checked” option to false (or true), it will.

<% Car.each do |c| %>
  <%= check_box_tag "car_ids[]", c.id, false, :id => "car_ids_#{c.id}" %>
<% end %>

Changing the Message

For Change the default message:

Code example

validates :invoice_number, :presence => {:message => 'The invoice number must be informed.'}

conditional rescue_from

Would it be possible to do something like:

rescue_from Exception, :with => my_handler, :unless => request.local?

Checking content_for

@tordans You asked your question 3 years ago, but in any case, should anyone have that same issue, you can manage that with:

- unless content_for(:footer).blank?
  yield(:footer)
- else
  == render "layouts/footer_big"

content_for(:x) defaults to an empty string, that’s why you need to check for blank? not nil?.

this has been deprecated; see linked note

This has been deprecated. See this note on memoize : http://apidock.com/rails/ActiveSupport/Memoizable/memoize#1317-this-has-been-deprecated-replace-with-Memoist

this has been deprecated; replace with Memoist

In Rails 3.2, memoize has been deprecated. In edge Rails, it has been removed.

The commit when it was deprecated: http://github.com/rails/rails/commit/36253916b0b788d6ded56669d37c96ed05c92c5c

A Stack Overflow question about this change: http://stackoverflow.com/q/9132197/578288

I personally disagree with the removal of memoize, and don’t recommend using the `||=` pattern Rails now suggests. The exception is if your entire program only memoizes something once or twice, so it’s not worth including a gem for.

The easiest way to keep using memoize is to use the Memoist gem (http://github.com/matthewrudy/memoist , http://rubygems.org/gems/memoist), which is a simple extraction of ActiveSupport::Memoizable into its own gem.

Adding Additional Parameters to form_for

If you want to add additional parameters to the form_for helper, but still want to use one form for both your “create” and your “update” actions, you can add the additional parameters to the :url option, but you need to omit the :controller and :action keys.

form_for(@user, :url => {:param1 => "value1", :param2 => "value2"}) do |f|

or

form_for([@post, @comment], :url => {:param1 => "value1", :param2 => "value2"}) do |f| 

where param1 and param2 are not :controller or :action

Another usage example

given: order active record class with “state” string field

class Order < ActiveRecord::Base
  def state
    @state ||= ActiveSupport::StringInquirer.new(read_attribute(:status))
  end
end

order = Order.new(state: "initial")
order.state.initial? #=> true
order.state.paid? #=> false

add_to_base in Rails 3

In addition to stevo’s note, in Rails 3 you can also do:

model_instance.errors.add(:base, "Msg") 

Month-first date string no longer parses correctly

The following date format won’t be parsed correctly:

'06/15/2008'.to_date 

Use this instead:

Date.strptime("6/15/2012", '%m/%d/%Y')

Example of usage

e.g.

str = ActiveSupport::StringInquirer.new('test')

str.test? # => true
str.foobar? # => false

:disable_with is deprecated

Or you can use this way:

<%= submit_tag "Login", data: { disable_with: "Please wait.." } %>

:disable_with is deprecated

Since version 3.2.5 you should not use :disable_with.

Use this:

<%= submit_tag "Login", 'data-disable-with' => "Please wait.." %>

You can remove leading Zeros this way as well

By just adding a - symbol.

%-I %-d

This method does not work.

It’s an old problem, reported back in 2010, just reopened issue:

http://github.com/rails/rails/issues/6620

Accepted parameters for validate

Validate method also accepts :on and :if parameters. The default value for :on is :save, the other accepted values are :create and :update

class Comment
  include ActiveModel::Validations

  validate :must_be_friends, :on => :create, :if => Proc.new {|comment| some_condition}

  def must_be_friends
    errors.add(:base, "Must be friends to leave a comment") unless commenter.friend_of?(commentee)
  end
end

similar to clone

See the clone documentation. I see that ActiveRecord is moving from “clone” (3.0.9) to “dup” (?).

Beware nested with_options clobbers!

Careful:

with_options :foo => :bar do |something|
  something.with_options :foo => :baz do |inner|
    what_is(:foo)
  end
end

:foo will be :baz. It will not be [:bar, :baz], for example.

This bit me when trying to do nested with_options for validation where both had :if => something.

If you try to use :id as a non-primary-key field

If you’re using this so that you can repurpose :id for another use, it gets hairy: your ActiveRecord::Base subclass will still use :id to refer to your primary key, whatever it be named.

So when you call [my obj].id = 33, 33 is set as the value of your primary key, not your :id attribute!