method

update_attributes

Importance_5
v1.1.6 - Show latest stable - 6 notes - Class: ActiveRecord::Base
update_attributes(attributes) public

Updates all the attributes from the passed-in Hash and saves the record. If the object is invalid, the saving will fail and false will be returned.

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August 27, 2008
16 thanks

Only attr_accessible attributes will be updated

If your model specified attr_accessible attributes, only those attributes will be updated.

Use attr_accessible to prevent mass assignment (by users) of attributes that should not be editable by a user. Mass assignment is used in create and update methods of your standard controller.

For a normal user account, for example, you only want login and password to be editable by a user. It should not be possible to change the status attribute through mass assignment.

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :login, :password
end

So, doing the following will merrily return true, but will not update the status attribute.

@user.update_attributes(:status => 'active')

If you want to update the status attribute, you should assign it separately.

@user.status = 'active'
save
August 14, 2008
4 thanks

Calls attribute setter for each key/value in the hash

This is a convenience to set multiple attributes at the same time. It calls the “setter” method

self.attribute=(value)

for each key in the hash. If you have overridden the setter to add functionality, it will be called.

This also allows you to create non-table attributes that affect the record. For instance, a full_name=() method could parse the string and set the first_name=() and last_name() accordingly.

June 17, 2009
3 thanks

Skipping validation

Unlike the save method, you can’t pass false to update_attributes to tell it to skip validation. Should you wish to do this (consider carefully if this is wise) update the attributes explicitly then call save and pass false:

@model_name.attributes = params[:model_name]
@model_name.save false
July 20, 2012
1 thank

Skipping validation - follow up

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

November 16, 2012
0 thanks

The last existing version

It says: The last existing version, and yet when I run a rails console in a 3.0.17 and try the method, it just works. Or does it mean it was never worked on past 2.3.8 ?

March 27, 2013 - (v3.0.0 - v3.2.13)
0 thanks

Out of date for Rails 3.

This is out of date for Rails 3; instead see ActiveRecord::Persistence#update_attributes