Question

I have a model called Treating that requires the presence of both a ‘requestor’ and a ‘requestee’. Neither of these attributes are accessible in the Treating model. Here’s the model:

class Treating < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :intro, :proposed_date, :proposed_location

  validates :intro, presence: true, length: { maximum: 190 }
  validates :requestor_id, presence: true
  validates :requestee_id, presence: true

    belongs_to :requestor, class_name: "User"
    belongs_to :requestee, class_name: "User"

    default_scope order: 'treatings.created_at DESC'

end

I am trying to populate the test database with this rake file, sample_data.rake:

namespace :db do
    desc "Fill database with sample data"
    task populate: :environment do
        ...

        requestors = User.all(limit: 6)
        50.times do
            intro = Faker::Lorem.sentence(5)
            requestors.each do |requestor|
                requestee = User.find(rand(1..6))
                requestor.sent_treatings.create!(intro: intro)
            end
        end
    end
end

Unless I make :requestor an accessible attribute in the Treating model and follow ‘intro: intro’ with ‘requestee: requestee’ in the ‘requestor.sent_treatings.create!(intro: intro)’ line of my rake file, I will get a Validation error when I run rake db:populate saying that ‘requestee is blank’:

rake aborted!
Validation failed: Requestee can't be blank

Tasks: TOP => db:populate

1) [more imporant] How do I set ‘requestee’ in my rake file without having to make it accessible in the model?
2) I have a hacky approach to declaring the ‘requestee’ variable within my ’50.times.do’ loop: ‘requestee = User.find(rand(1..6))’. What is a better way to declare this similar to how I declare my ‘requestor’ variable in ‘requestors.each do |requestor|’?

Thanks so much!

Answer 1

namespace :db do
    desc "Fill database with sample data"
    task populate: :environment do
        ...

        requestors = User.all(limit: 6)
        requestees = User.find((1..6).to_a)
        50.times do
            intro = Faker::Lorem.sentence(5)
            requestors.each do |requestor|
                requestee = requestees.sample #random array member, Ruby 1.9+
                treating = requestor.sent_treatings.build(intro: intro)
                treating.requestee = requestee
                treating.save!
            end
        end
    end
end