Question

I have a form that sets the attributes of a model, however, there is an attribute that I want to set through the code. That is, I want the user to set some attributes, but I want the program to set other attributes.

Is there any way of doing this?

Example:

If I have table with a “text” column and a “user” column, I want the user to enter the text, but I want the “user” column to be set by the program. How would I accomplish this?

Answer 1

Sure. You could do something like this:

 def create
   @something = Something.new(params[:something])
   @something.programmatically_set_attribute = "Some value"  #Here's the part that matters

   respond_to do |format|
     if @host.save
       format.html { redirect_to(@something, :notice => 'Something was successfully created.') }
       format.xml  { render :xml => @something, :status => :created, :location => @something}
     else
       format.html { render :action => "new" }
       format.xml  { render :xml => @something.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }
     end
   end
end

In your form, you would just leave out the field that you don’t want edited by human hands. You would also have to change the update function, as well.