Question

I have this class:

class User
  include Mongoid::Document
  field :revenues, :type => Integer, :default => nil
  attr_accessible :revenues
  #now method
  def revenues
   return 1
  end
end

Why in console I get 1 instead nil?

1.9.3-p125 :002 > u.revenues
 => 1 

Which has priority, the method or the field? How can I created a method with the same features that a field?

Answer 1

The field macro is defined in Mongoid::Document. It is neither a syntatic feature from Ruby nor from Rails.

What’s happening with your code is the following:

1. The field function creates for you some methods, one of them is called revenues.
2. When you create another method called revenues, you are in effect overwriting the previously defined method, therefore making it useless.

Short answer: I don’t understand a zip about Mongoid, but chances are that your field still exists even after you defined oce again a method named revenues. The only drawback is that you cannot access it by calling myUser.revenues anymore.

Try to make a test: access your field with the notation some_user[:revenues] and see what happen 🙂

Best regards