Question

Can I take the .save method of certain activeRecord models and add functionality to it? I would also like to use some of the attributes of the item being saved in that function

Can I do something like?

class Item < ActiveRecord::Base
    def self.save
        <added stuff for save>
        <including some_other_id_from_this_item>
    end
end

or will that break things? And how do I actually access this_item.the_column_i_need?

Answer 1

You should use ActiveRecords callbacks to extend the behavior of save.

With the before_save hook you can access data before the record is saved, for example to change case of entered email you can do something like

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  before_save :downcase_email

  def downcase_email
    email.downcase!
  end
end