Question

When editing a basic User model in Rails from the edit.html.erb form, I would like to apply special logic if the User’s email address is changed. I am having trouble trying to setup the IF statement in the controller.

Here is what I have in the Users Controller:

class UsersController < ApplicationController
    .
    .
    .
    def edit
        @user = User.find(params[:id])
    end

    def update
        current_email = @user.email
        new_email = params[:user][:email]
        if new_email = current_email
            #update user as usual
        else
            #send email to new email address to confirm
        end
    end
    .
    .
end

When debugging, I find that lines 1 and 2 of the Update action are working correctly. Specifically, when I change the email on the edit User form, the variables are set correctly. But the IF statement (line 3 in the Update action) always seems to return true.

Here is the edit.html.erb form that I am using:

<%= form_for(@user) do |f| %>

    <%= render 'shared/error_messages', :object => f.object %>

    <%= f.label :first_name %><br />
    <%= f.text_field :first_name %><br />
    <%= f.label :last_name %><br />
    <%= f.text_field :last_name %><br />
    <%= f.label :email %><br />
    <%= f.text_field :email %><br />    
    <%= f.label :password %><br />
    <%= f.password_field :password %><br />
    <%= f.label :password_confirmation, "Confirmation" %><br />
    <%= f.password_field :password_confirmation %><br />

<%= f.submit "Update" %>

Any help with this will be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The evaluation operator is == not =. It should read:

if new_email == current_email
    #update user as usual
else