Question

A legacy database has a column changed (containing an updated_at timestamp).

This results in an error changed? is defined by ActiveRecord, but only when I open its association.

I have tried to:

• override instance_method_already_implemented?
• And to alias that column.
• To add custom methods using write_attribute and read_attribute.

But none of that avoids the failure.

Can a changed column exist? At all? I would prefer not to have to alter the table, because that means changing a lot of legacycode too.

Answer 1

One of the few downsides to ActiveRecord are all the already-taken attribute names. This is one of them, and it can be an error-prone nightmare to work around ActiveRecord’s declarations.

If your database supports them, you could create a view of the table just to present different column names to ActiveRecord.