Question

I have a simple method that check for an existing User and if not found it will create it and will create also a Profile object.

Since the Profile requires the user_id to be saved, I need somehow to initialize the User with an ID if it does not exist.

I ended up with something like this, but this is not presetting a user_id when initialized the user.

 def create_or_update_user(user)
   user_object = User.find_or_initialize_by_external_id(user['external_id'])

   if user_object.new_record?
     user_profile = user_object.build_profile(params)
   end
   user_object.save

 end

Any idea how can I set the ID when initialized the User record?

Answer 1

I dont think you can, and even so I dont think you should. If you assign an id to your user without creating a record, theres a chance that id may be taken by the time you finally save it.

Whats wrong with saving the user, then building and saving the profile?