Question

I’m adding some columns to one of my database tables, and then populating those columns:

def self.up
  add_column :contacts, :business_id, :integer
  add_column :contacts, :business_type, :string

  Contact.reset_column_information
  Contact.all.each do |contact|
    contact.update_attributes(:business_id => contact.client_id, :business_type => 'Client')
  end

  remove_column :contacts, :client_id
end

The line contact.update_attributes is causing the following Authlogic error:

You must activate the Authlogic::Session::Base.controller with a controller object before creating objects

I have no idea what is going on here – I’m not using a controller method to modify each row in the table. Nor am I creating new objects.

The error doesn’t occur if the contacts table is empty.

I’ve had a google and it seems like this error can occur when you run your controller tests, and is fixed by adding before_filter :activate_authlogic to them, but this doesn’t seem relevant in my case.

Any ideas? I’m stumped.

Here’s my Contact model as requested:

class Contact < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :contactable, :polymorphic => true
  has_many :phone_numbers, :as => :callable
  has_many :email_addresses, :as => :emailable

  accepts_nested_attributes_for :phone_numbers
  accepts_nested_attributes_for :email_addresses

  validates_presence_of :first_name, :last_name
  validates_format_of :first_name, :last_name, :with => /^[-a-zA-Z ]+$/

  default_scope :order => 'first_name ASC, last_name ASC'

  def full_name
    "#{self.first_name} #{self.last_name}"
  end

  def to_s
    full_name
  end
end

Version info: Rails 2.3.5, Authlogic 2.1.3

rake db:migrate –trace output can be found online at pastie here: http://pastie.org/944446

Observer info:

I have an ActivityObserver that is observing my Contact model and creating an Activity using the after_update callback.

In my Activity model I am hackishly associating @current user with the activity being created using the before_save callback.

Here’s the relevant snippets of code:

class ActivityObserver < ActiveRecord::Observer
  observe :contact

  def after_update(subject)
    Activity.create(:action => 'Updated', :subject => subject)
  end
end

class Activity < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :subject, :polymorphic => true
  belongs_to :user

  def before_save
    # FIXME: This is a messy hack way to get the user's id
    self.user = UserSession.find.record
  end
end

This is definitely where Authlogic is getting involved. KandadaBoggu is the winrar – thanks a lot for your insight!!!

In terms of fixes, I think that fundamentally there aren’t any. If I want to create an Activity when my Contact is updated through a migration, by definition there is no @current_user to associate. I’ll have a think about a way to get around this, but KandadaBoggu has definitely answered my question.

Answer 1

It looks like some how Authlogic session object is created when you update the Contact model. Do you have any observers OR before/after filters for Contact model?

From authlogic documentation for Authlogic::Session::Base.activated?

# Returns true if a controller has been set and can be used properly. 
# This MUST be set before anything can be done. Similar to how ActiveRecord 
# won't allow you to do anything without establishing a DB connection. In your 
# framework environment this is done for you, but if you are using Authlogic 
# outside of your framework, you need to assign a controller object to Authlogic 
# via Authlogic::Session::Base.controller = obj. See the controller= method for 
# more information.

One way to work around the issue by setting the controller before modifying the Contact model instance, i.e.:

def self.up
  add_column :contacts, :business_id, :integer
  add_column :contacts, :business_type, :string

  Authlogic::Session::Base.controller = 
                       Authlogic::ControllerAdapters::RailsAdapter.new(self)

  Contact.reset_column_information
  Contact.all.each do |contact|
    contact.update_attributes(:business_id => contact.client_id, 
              :business_type => 'Client')
  end

  remove_column :contacts, :client_id
end

Note: I haven’t tested this code.