Question

This is EXTREMELY bizarre. I’m upgrading a Rails 2.3.12 app and running into this same problem over and over again. I’m stumped and nothing else out there seems to touch on it.

I have two models:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
   has_many :logs, :class_name => 'UserLog'
end

and

class UserLog < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessor :site_id, :controller, :action, :url, :session

  belongs_to :user

  validates_presence_of :user
end

then in another controller I’m doing this:

def log_user_activity
   @current_user.logs.create(:site_id => @site.id, :controller => params[:controller],
   :action => params[:action], :url => request.path,
   :session => request.session_options[:id]) if @current_user
end

as you can see, it’s pretty straightforward but when I call log_user_activity I’m getting this:

Can't mass-assign protected attributes: site_id, controller, action, url, session

HOWEVER, if I change all my creates or builds to this:

def log_user_activity
   log = @current_user.logs.new
   log.site_id = @site.id
   log.controller = params[:controller]
   log.action = params[:action]
   log.url = request.path
   log.session = request.session_options[:id]
   log.save
end

then it works fine!?

Has anyone seen this? Any clues?

Answer 1

In class UserLog, add the following:

attr_accessible :site_id, :controller, :action, :url, :session

The reason you have to use attr_accessible is most likely because you are utilizing a plugin that is relying on this being present for a model. It has happened to all of us and is a royal pita)

Once attr_accessible is designated for a class, then any attribute that is not specified as ‘accessible’ will not be allowed to be updated.