Question

I am building an achievement system and the final part is notifying the user. Once the achievement is created in the model

class Achievement < ActiveRecord::Base

   def self.check_conditions_for(user)
     if user.month_views >= 30 and !user.views_awarded?(self)
      user.award(self)
     end
   end
end

I need to flash a custom notice to the user which they can then close. What is the best way to initiate this from the model? I know I can only call Flash messages from the controller but I need a workaround in this instance. It will look very similar to how stack overflow displays their badges.

Answer 1

Ok so if a user views a video — presumably hitting some url, you should just call Achievement.check_conditions_for(user) in the associated action. Achievement.check_conditions_for(user) can return some value – maybe a notice message – which you can send as a normal flash message. No need for a workaround here if this is just executed when some action is called.

For example, if you have a controller Videos and you’re calling the action watch:

def watch
  @video = Video.find(params[:id])
  @notice = Achievement.check_conditions_for(current_user)
  respond_to do |format|
    format.js
  end
end

in app/views/videos/watch.js.erb:

alert("<%= @notice %>");