Question

Both of my callback methods have update_attributes in them. So it looks like when calculate_rating runs it also calls modify_rating. I only want calculate_rating to run for creating a new record and modify_rating to run only when editing and updating a record through a form.

     after_create :calculate_rating
     before_update :modify_rating


      def calculate_rating
      end

      def modify_rating
      end

Answer 1

From the fine manual for update_attributes:

Updates the attributes of the model from the passed-in hash and saves the record […]

So when you call update_attributes, it will try to save the object and that means that update_attributes is not appropriate for either of the callbacks you’re using; update_attributes is meant to be used by controllers for mass assignment and the like.

You could replace the update_attributes call with simple assignments:

def calculate_rating
    self.attr1 = 11
    self.attr2 = 23
    #...
end