Question

I have an xml file the user imports data from. This creates a record in the Player model.
At the same time, I want a record to be created in the Membership association.

Both of the above should only be triggered if the record does not already exist.
This is a shortened version of the method:

@player = self.players.find_or_initialize_by_name_and_archetype(name, archetype)
if @player.save
  self.memberships.create(:player_id => @player.id)
end

Now find_or_initialize_by works, but a Membership is still created for each player, basically ignoring the if condition.

How can one go about doing this in a concise way?

Answer 1

If @player gets set from a find, or an initialize, calling save on it can still return true, even if it’s not a new record—try it out in console by finding an object, not changing anything, calling save on it, and you’ll still get true so long as it’s a valid object.

That being said, I think you want your condition to be more along the lines of

if @player.new_record? && @player.save