Question

I am using virtual attributes to break out a comma separated parameter list in the view, and then trying to recombine them to save into my Active Record model.

Given the real attribute “ad_columns” that defaults to “1,1,1,1”

I am breaking them out in to individual attributes for the form:

attr_accessor :top_rows

#Getter
def top_rows
  split = ad_rows.split(',', 4)
  split[0]
end

#Setter
def top_rows=(trows)
  ad_rows_will_change!
  self.ad_rows = [trows, self.right_rows, self.bottom_rows, self.left_rows].join(",")
end

Then repeating this for right, bottom, left and right.

Given an object if I call “object.top_rows” I do get “1”, and if I update it in irb:

object.top_rows = "3"

Then it updates the ad_rows real attribute properly. I can see that the object has changes, and when I do an

object.save

The changes are updated in the database.

The problem is, this is NOT working from the view. It will not save to the database. I have even used logger.info to see if the model has changed and it will show that “ad_rows” has indeed been changed, yet active record is still NOT updating the real attribute.

I can’t figure out why this is happening. Am I just doing it wrong? 🙂 Thanks.

Why would it work in irb but not the view?

Answer 1

It seems that since the attribute :ad_rows was not being passed in the parameters, it was not being recognized as changed by the controller.

I had to add:

object.ad_rows_will_change!

To my controller to force it to save the ad_rows column.

I am not sure if this is the best solution, but it is working for now.