Question

I have first_name and last_name fields currently represented in my model in rails. I’d like to add another field to my database called full_name and was wondering what the best way to do this seamlessly would be. Mind you I also have a production server going and would like to make it so that I not only add a column in my migration, but also can populate the new field with the existing data.

EDIT:

Here’s my controller

def followers
    @title = "Followers"
    @user = User.find(params[:id])
    @users = @user.followers.paginate(page: params[:page])
    @followers = @user.followers.find(:all, :select => 'users.id, users.first_name, users.last_name', :conditions => ["users.first_name like ?","%" + params[:q] + "%"])

    respond_to do |format|
      format.html {render 'show_follow'}
      format.json {render :json => @followers}
    end
end

I want to be able to 1. select: 'users.id, users.full_name and 2. :condition =>["users.full_name like ?", ...] and the only way I can think to do this is to modify the model. I also only want to return the properties id and full_name in the json object.

Answer 1

You will probably be better off just defining a full_name method in your model:

def full_name                                                                                                                                                                                     
  ([first_name, last_name] - ['']).compact.join(' ')                         
end

You can search by full name with something like:

def self.find_all_by_name_containing(text)
  self.where("LOWER(first_name || ' ' || last_name) LIKE ?", "%#{text.downcase}%")
end

Then define your own #to_json