Question

I have a 2-level nested models:

country <- state <- city

Currently, in each controller, upon all CRUD operation, I will find its parent model and runs the .touch for each model. For example:

# cities_controller.rb
def update
  @state = State.find(params[:state_id])
  @country = Country.find(@state.id)
  ...
  @state.touch
  @country.touch
end

For each action in state, city, I would touch its parent (and its parent’s parent) whenever CRUD is completed successfully.

Is there any DRYer way to do this? I know about autosave option, but it only works for newly created associated record. I want to include destroyed, updated record also. If one city is changed, it’s state and country will also be timestamped to reflect something has been changed.

Many thanks.

Answer 1

If I were you, I prefer to rewrite the touch function in this there models.

class State < ActiveRecord:Base
  def touch
    self.updated_at = Time.now
    self.state.touch
  end
end

class City < ActiveRecord:Base
  def touch
    self.updated_at = Time.now
    self.state.touch
  end
end