Group items tagged

native database constraints

client-side validations

controller-level validations

Database constraints and/or stored procedures make the validation mechanisms database-dependent and can make testing and maintenance more difficult

Client-side validations can be useful, but are generally unreliable

combined with other techniques, client-side validation can be a convenient way to provide users with immediate feedback

it's a good idea to keep your controllers skinny

Active Record uses the new_record? instance method to determine whether an object is already in the database or not.

Creating and saving a new record will send an SQL INSERT operation to the database. Updating an existing record will send an SQL UPDATE operation instead. Validations are typically run before these commands are sent to the database

The bang versions (e.g. save!) raise an exception if the record is invalid.

save and update return false

create just returns the object

be used with caution

update_all

save also has the ability to skip validations if passed validate: false as argument.

valid? triggers your validations and returns true if no errors

After Active Record has performed validations, any errors found can be accessed through the errors.messages instance method

By definition, an object is valid if this collection is empty after running validations.

validations are not run when using new.

invalid? is simply the inverse of valid?.

To verify whether or not a particular attribute of an object is valid, you can use errors[:attribute]. I

Every time a validation fails, an error message is added to the object's errors collection,

All of them accept the :on and :message options, which define when the validation should be run and what message should be added to the errors collection if it fails, respectively.

validates that a checkbox on the user interface was checked when a form was submitted.

agree to your application's terms of service

use this helper when your model has associations with other models and they also need to be validated

valid? will be called upon each one of the associated objects.

work with all of the association types

Don't use validates_associated on both ends of your associations.

each associated object will contain its own errors collection

errors do not bubble up to the calling model

when you have two text fields that should receive exactly the same content

This validation creates a virtual attribute whose name is the name of the field that has to be confirmed with "_confirmation" appended.

To require confirmation, make sure to add a presence check for the confirmation attribute

this set can be any enumerable object.

The exclusion helper has an option :in that receives the set of values that will not be accepted for the validated attributes.

:in option has an alias called :within

validates the attributes' values by testing whether they match a given regular expression, which is specified using the :with option.

attribute does not match the regular expression by using the :without option.

validates that the attributes' values are included in a given set

:in option has an alias called :within

specify length constraints

:minimum

:maximum

:in (or :within)

:is - The attribute length must be equal to the given value.

:wrong_length, :too_long, and :too_short options and %{count} as a placeholder for the number corresponding to the length constraint being used.

split the value in a different way using the :tokenizer option:

validates that your attributes have only numeric values

By default, it will match an optional sign followed by an integral or floating point number.

set :only_integer to true.

allows a trailing newline character.

:greater_than

:greater_than_or_equal_to

:equal_to

:less_than

:less_than_or_equal_to

:odd - Specifies the value must be an odd number if set to true.

:even - Specifies the value must be an even number if set to true.

validates that the specified attributes are not empty

if the value is either nil or a blank string

validate associated records whose presence is required, you must specify the :inverse_of option for the association

an association is present, you'll need to test whether the associated object itself is present, and not the foreign key used to map the association

false.blank? is true

ensure the value will NOT be nil

validates that the specified attributes are absent

not either nil or a blank string

be sure that an association is absent

false.present? is false

validate the absence of a boolean field you should use validates :field_name, exclusion: { in: [true, false] }.

validates that the attribute's value is unique right before the object gets saved

a :scope option that you can use to specify other attributes that are used to limit the uniqueness check

a :case_sensitive option that you can use to define whether the uniqueness constraint will be case sensitive or not.

There is no default error message for validates_with.

To implement the validate method, you must have a record parameter defined, which is the record to be validated.

passes the record to a separate class for validation

validates attributes against a block

The block receives the record, the attribute's name and the attribute's value. You can do anything you like to check for valid data within the block

will let validation pass if the attribute's value is blank?, like nil or an empty string

the :message option lets you specify the message that will be added to the errors collection when validation fails

skips the validation when the value being validated is nil

specify when the validation should happen

raise ActiveModel::StrictValidationFailed when the object is invalid

You can do that by using the :if and :unless options, which can take a symbol, a string, a Proc or an Array.

use the :if option when you want to specify when the validation should happen

using eval and needs to contain valid Ruby code.

Using a Proc object gives you the ability to write an inline condition instead of a separate method

have multiple validations use one condition, it can be easily achieved using with_options.

implement a validate method which takes a record as an argument and performs the validation on it

validates_with method

implement a validate_each method which takes three arguments: record, attribute, and value

combine standard validations with your own custom validators.

:expiration_date_cannot_be_in_the_past,    :discount_cannot_be_greater_than_total_value

By default such validations will run every time you call valid?

errors[] is used when you want to check the error messages for a specific attribute.

Returns an instance of the class ActiveModel::Errors containing all errors.

lets you manually add messages that are related to particular attributes

using []= setter

errors[:base] is an array, you can simply add a string to it and it will be used as an error message.

use this method when you want to say that the object is invalid, no matter the values of its attributes.

clear all the messages in the errors collection

calling errors.clear upon an invalid object won't actually make it valid: the errors collection will now be empty, but the next time you call valid? or any method that tries to save this object to the database, the validations will run again.

the total number of error messages for the object.

.errors.full_messages.each

.field_with_errors

can overwrite the default label by passing it to the input method

configure the html of any of them

disable labels, hints or error

add a hint, an error, or even a placeholder

add an inline label

pass any html attribute straight to the input, by using the :input_html option

use the :defaults option in simple_form_fo

Simple Form generates a wrapper div around your label and input by default, you can pass any html attribute to that wrapper as well using the :wrapper_html option,

By default all inputs are required

the required property of any input can be overwritten

lets you overwrite the default input type it creates

can also render boolean attributes using as: :select to show a dropdown.

give the :disabled option to Simple Form, and it'll automatically mark the wrapper as disabled with a CSS class

Any extra option passed to these methods will be rendered as html option.

use label, hint, input_field, error and full_error helpers

to strip away all the div wrappers around the <input> field

is to use f.input_field

changing boolean_style from default value :nested to :inline

overriding the :collection option

Collections can be arrays or ranges, and when a :collection is given the :select input will be rendered by default

label_method

value_method

Both of these options also accept lambda/procs

define a to_label method on your model as Simple Form will search for and use :to_label as a :label_method first if it is found

create grouped collection selects, that will use the html optgroup tags

Grouped collection inputs accept the same :label_method and :value_method options

group_method

group_label_method

configured with a default value to be used on the site through the SimpleForm.country_priority and SimpleForm.time_zone_priority helpers.

association

association

render a :select input for choosing the :company, and another :select input with :multiple option for the :roles

all options available to :select, :radio_buttons and :check_boxes are also available to association

f.input

f.select

create a <button> element

simple_fields_for

Creates a collection of radio inputs with labels associated

Creates a collection of checkboxes with labels associated

collection_radio_buttons

collection_check_boxes

associations in your model

Role.all

the html element you will get for each attribute according to its database definition

redefine existing Simple Form inputs by creating a new class with the same name

Simple Form uses all power of I18n API to lookup labels, hints, prompts and placeholders

specify defaults for all models under the 'defaults' key

Simple Form will always look for a default attribute translation under the "defaults" key if no specific is found inside the model key

Simple Form will fallback to default human_attribute_name from Rails when no other translation is found for labels.

Simple Form will only do the lookup for options if you give a collection composed of symbols only.

"Add %{model}"

translations for labels, hints and placeholders for a namespaced model, e.g. Admin::User, should be placed under admin_user, not under admin/user

configure how your components will be rendered using the wrappers API

optional

unless_blank

By default, Simple Form will generate input field types and attributes that are supported in HTML5

The HTML5 extensions include the new field types such as email, number, search, url, tel, and the new attributes such as required, autofocus, maxlength, min, max, step.

If you want to have all other HTML 5 features, such as the new field types, you can disable only the browser validation

add novalidate to a specific form by setting the option on the form itself

the Simple Form configuration file

passing the html5 option

as: :date, html5: true

Associations are implemented using macro-style calls, so that you can declaratively add features to your models

A belongs_to association sets up a one-to-one connection with another model, such that each instance of the declaring model "belongs to" one instance of the other model.

belongs_to

A has_one association also sets up a one-to-one connection with another model, but with somewhat different semantics (and consequences).

belongs_to

A has_many association indicates a one-to-many connection with another model.

This association indicates that each instance of the model has zero or more instances of another model.

belongs_to

A has_many :through association is often used to set up a many-to-many connection with another model

This association indicates that the declaring model can be matched with zero or more instances of another model by proceeding through a third model.

through:

through:

The collection of join models can be managed via the API

new join models are created for newly associated objects, and if some are gone their rows are deleted.

The has_many :through association is also useful for setting up "shortcuts" through nested has_many associations

A has_one :through association sets up a one-to-one connection with another model. This association indicates that the declaring model can be matched with one instance of another model by proceeding through a third model.

A has_and_belongs_to_many association creates a direct many-to-many connection with another model, with no intervening model.

id: false

The has_one relationship says that one of something is yours

using t.references :supplier instead.

declare a many-to-many relationship is to use has_many :through. This makes the association indirectly, through a join model

set up a has_many :through relationship if you need to work with the relationship model as an independent entity

set up a has_and_belongs_to_many relationship (though you'll need to remember to create the joining table in the database).

use has_many :through if you need validations, callbacks, or extra attributes on the join model

With polymorphic associations, a model can belong to more than one other model, on a single association.

a polymorphic belongs_to declaration as setting up an interface that any other model can use.

In designing a data model, you will sometimes find a model that should have a relation to itself

add a references column to the model itself

All of the association methods are built around caching, which keeps the result of the most recent query available for further operations.

it is a bad idea to give an association a name that is already used for an instance method of ActiveRecord::Base. The association method would override the base method and break things.

belongs_to associations you need to create foreign keys

has_and_belongs_to_many associations you need to create the appropriate join table

So a join between customer and order models will give the default join table name of "customers_orders" because "c" outranks "o" in lexical ordering.

For example, one would expect the tables "paper_boxes" and "papers" to generate a join table name of "papers_paper_boxes" because of the length of the name "paper_boxes", but it in fact generates a join table name of "paper_boxes_papers" (because the underscore '' is lexicographically _less than 's' in common encodings).

id: false

pass id: false to create_table because that table does not represent a model

By default, associations look for objects only within the current module's scope.

will work fine, because both the Supplier and the Account class are defined within the same scope.

To associate a model with a model in a different namespace, you must specify the complete class name in your association declaration:

class_name

class_name

Active Record provides the :inverse_of option

Every association will attempt to automatically find the inverse association and set the :inverse_of option heuristically (based on the association name)

In database terms, this association says that this class contains the foreign key.

In all of these methods, association is replaced with the symbol passed as the first argument to belongs_to.

(force_reload = false)

The association method returns the associated object, if any. If no associated object is found, it returns nil.

the cached version will be returned.

The association= method assigns an associated object to this object.

Behind the scenes, this means extracting the primary key from the associate object and setting this object's foreign key to the same value.

The build_association method returns a new object of the associated type

The create_association method returns a new object of the associated type

raises ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid if the record is invalid.

dependent

counter_cache

:autosave :class_name :counter_cache :dependent :foreign_key :inverse_of :polymorphic :touch :validate

finding the number of belonging objects more efficient.

Although the :counter_cache option is specified on the model that includes the belongs_to declaration, the actual column must be added to the associated model.

:destroy, when the object is destroyed, destroy will be called on its associated objects.

The :inverse_of option specifies the name of the has_many or has_one association that is the inverse of this association

set the :touch option to :true, then the updated_at or updated_on timestamp on the associated object will be set to the current time whenever this object is saved or destroyed

specify a particular timestamp attribute to update

If you set the :validate option to true, then associated objects will be validated whenever you save this object

where includes readonly select

make your code somewhat more efficient

no need to use includes for immediate associations

will be read-only when retrieved via the association

The select method lets you override the SQL SELECT clause that is used to retrieve data about the associated object

using the association.nil?

In database terms, this association says that the other class contains the foreign key.

the cached version will be returned.

:as :autosave :class_name :dependent :foreign_key :inverse_of :primary_key :source :source_type :through :validate

Setting the :as option indicates that this is a polymorphic association

:nullify causes the foreign key to be set to NULL. Callbacks are not executed.

It's necessary not to set or leave :nullify option for those associations that have NOT NULL database constraints.

The :source_type option specifies the source association type for a has_one :through association that proceeds through a polymorphic association.

The :source option specifies the source association name for a has_one :through association.

The :through option specifies a join model through which to perform the query

more efficient by including representatives in the association from suppliers to accounts

When you assign an object to a has_one association, that object is automatically saved (in order to update its foreign key).

If either of these saves fails due to validation errors, then the assignment statement returns false and the assignment itself is cancelled.

If the parent object (the one declaring the has_one association) is unsaved (that is, new_record? returns true) then the child objects are not saved.

If you want to assign an object to a has_one association without saving the object, use the association.build method

collection(force_reload = false) collection<<(object, ...) collection.delete(object, ...) collection.destroy(object, ...) collection=(objects) collection_singular_ids collection_singular_ids=(ids) collection.clear collection.empty? collection.size collection.find(...) collection.where(...) collection.exists?(...) collection.build(attributes = {}, ...) collection.create(attributes = {}) collection.create!(attributes = {})

In all of these methods, collection is replaced with the symbol passed as the first argument to has_many, and collection_singular is replaced with the singularized version of that symbol.

The collection<< method adds one or more objects to the collection by setting their foreign keys to the primary key of the calling model

The collection.delete method removes one or more objects from the collection by setting their foreign keys to NULL.

objects will be destroyed if they're associated with dependent: :destroy, and deleted if they're associated with dependent: :delete_all

The collection.destroy method removes one or more objects from the collection by running destroy on each object.

The collection_singular_ids method returns an array of the ids of the objects in the collection.

The collection_singular_ids= method makes the collection contain only the objects identified by the supplied primary key values, by adding and deleting as appropriate

The default strategy for has_many :through associations is delete_all, and for has_many associations is to set the foreign keys to NULL.

The collection.clear method removes all objects from the collection according to the strategy specified by the dependent option

uses the same syntax and options as ActiveRecord::Base.find

The collection.where method finds objects within the collection based on the conditions supplied but the objects are loaded lazily meaning that the database is queried only when the object(s) are accessed.

The collection.build method returns one or more new objects of the associated type. These objects will be instantiated from the passed attributes, and the link through their foreign key will be created, but the associated objects will not yet be saved.

The collection.create method returns a new object of the associated type. This object will be instantiated from the passed attributes, the link through its foreign key will be created, and, once it passes all of the validations specified on the associated model, the associated object will be saved.

:as :autosave :class_name :dependent :foreign_key :inverse_of :primary_key :source :source_type :through :validate

:nullify causes the foreign keys to be set to NULL. Callbacks are not executed.

where includes readonly select

:conditions :through :polymorphic :foreign_key

By convention, Rails assumes that the column used to hold the primary key of the association is id. You can override this and explicitly specify the primary key with the :primary_key option.

The :source option specifies the source association name for a has_many :through association.

You only need to use this option if the name of the source association cannot be automatically inferred from the association name.

The :source_type option specifies the source association type for a has_many :through association that proceeds through a polymorphic association.

The :through option specifies a join model through which to perform the query.

has_many :through associations provide a way to implement many-to-many relationships,

By default, this is true: associated objects will be validated when this object is saved.

where extending group includes limit offset order readonly select uniq

If you use a hash-style where option, then record creation via this association will be automatically scoped using the hash

The extending method specifies a named module to extend the association proxy.

Association extensions

The group method supplies an attribute name to group the result set by, using a GROUP BY clause in the finder SQL.

more efficient by including line items in the association from customers to orders

The limit method lets you restrict the total number of objects that will be fetched through an association.

The offset method lets you specify the starting offset for fetching objects via an association

The order method dictates the order in which associated objects will be received (in the syntax used by an SQL ORDER BY clause).

Use the distinct method to keep the collection free of duplicates.

mostly useful together with the :through option

-> { distinct }

.all.inspect

If you want to make sure that, upon insertion, all of the records in the persisted association are distinct (so that you can be sure that when you inspect the association that you will never find duplicate records), you should add a unique index on the table itself

Do not attempt to use include? to enforce distinctness in an association.

When you assign an object to a has_many association, that object is automatically saved (in order to update its foreign key).

If any of these saves fails due to validation errors, then the assignment statement returns false and the assignment itself is cancelled.

If the parent object (the one declaring the has_many association) is unsaved (that is, new_record? returns true) then the child objects are not saved when they are added

assign an object to a has_many association without saving the object, use the collection.build method

collection(force_reload = false) collection<<(object, ...) collection.delete(object, ...) collection.destroy(object, ...) collection=(objects) collection_singular_ids collection_singular_ids=(ids) collection.clear collection.empty? collection.size collection.find(...) collection.where(...) collection.exists?(...) collection.build(attributes = {}) collection.create(attributes = {}) collection.create!(attributes = {})

If the join table for a has_and_belongs_to_many association has additional columns beyond the two foreign keys, these columns will be added as attributes to records retrieved via that association.

If you require this sort of complex behavior on the table that joins two models in a many-to-many relationship, you should use a has_many :through association instead of has_and_belongs_to_many.

The collection.delete method removes one or more objects from the collection by deleting records in the join table

The collection.destroy method removes one or more objects from the collection by running destroy on each record in the join table, including running callbacks.

The collection.clear method removes every object from the collection by deleting the rows from the joining table.

The collection.find method finds objects within the collection. It uses the same syntax and options as ActiveRecord::Base.find.

The collection.where method finds objects within the collection based on the conditions supplied but the objects are loaded lazily meaning that the database is queried only when the object(s) are accessed.

The collection.exists? method checks whether an object meeting the supplied conditions exists in the collection.

The collection.build method returns a new object of the associated type.

The collection.create method returns a new object of the associated type.

it passes all of the validations specified on the associated model

:association_foreign_key :autosave :class_name :foreign_key :join_table :validate

The :foreign_key and :association_foreign_key options are useful when setting up a many-to-many self-join.

Rails assumes that the column in the join table used to hold the foreign key pointing to the other model is the name of that model with the suffix _id added.

If you set the :autosave option to true, Rails will save any loaded members and destroy members that are marked for destruction whenever you save the parent object.

By convention, Rails assumes that the column in the join table used to hold the foreign key pointing to this model is the name of this model with the suffix _id added.

By default, this is true: associated objects will be validated when this object is saved.

where extending group includes limit offset order readonly select uniq

set conditions via a hash

In this case, using @parts.assemblies.create or @parts.assemblies.build will create orders where the factory column has the value "Seattle"

using a GROUP BY clause in the finder SQL.

Use the uniq method to remove duplicates from the collection.

assign an object to a has_and_belongs_to_many association, that object is automatically saved (in order to update the join table).

If any of these saves fails due to validation errors, then the assignment statement returns false and the assignment itself is cancelled.

If the parent object (the one declaring the has_and_belongs_to_many association) is unsaved (that is, new_record? returns true) then the child objects are not saved when they are added.

If you want to assign an object to a has_and_belongs_to_many association without saving the object, use the collection.build method.

Normal callbacks hook into the life cycle of Active Record objects, allowing you to work with those objects at various points

define association callbacks by adding options to the association declaration

stack callbacks on a single event by passing them as an array

If a before_add callback throws an exception, the object does not get added to the collection.

if a before_remove callback throws an exception, the object does not get removed from the collection

extend these objects through anonymous modules, adding new finders, creators, or other methods.

order_number

use a named extension module

proxy_association.owner returns the object that the association is a part of.

shift takes these arguments and removes the first one, shifting each of the rest down by one place in line.

on any of the options that accept an argument, that argument will be stored in the variable $OPTARG automagically for you.

getopts command

in leveraging regular Ruby classes and object oriented design patterns to build a simple, robust and scaleable authorization system

map to the name of a particular controller action

In the generated ApplicationPolicy, the model object is called record.

record

authorize

authorize would have done something like this: raise "not authorized" unless PostPolicy.new(current_user, @post).update?

pass a second argument to authorize if the name of the permission you want to check doesn't match the action name.

you can chain it

authorize returns the object passed to it

the policy method in both the view and controller.

have some kind of view listing records which a particular user has access to

ActiveRecord::Relation

Instances of this class respond to the method resolve, which should return some kind of result which can be iterated over.

scope.where(published: true)

use this class from your controller via the policy_scope method:

PostPolicy::Scope.new(current_user, Post).resolve

policy_scope(@user.posts).each

This method will raise an exception if authorize has not yet been called.

verify_policy_scoped to your controller. This will raise an exception in the vein of verify_authorized. However, it tracks if policy_scope is used instead of authorize

need to conditionally bypass verification, you can use skip_authorization

skip_policy_scope

Having a mechanism that ensures authorization happens allows developers to thoroughly test authorization scenarios as units on the policy objects themselves.