Rails - Nov 2005 - Adding custom attributes to an ActiveRecord object

Subject line states the question.  I''m adding the following to an 
ActiveRecord class:

class Institution < ActiveRecord::Base

  # list of associations
  has_and_belongs_to_many(:license_types)

  attr_accessor :tmp_license_types

  public
  def initialize(attributes = nil)
    super(attributes)
    @tmp_license_types = Array.new
    self.license_types.each { |lt| self.tmp_license_types << lt }
end

The problem is that if I try to access this attribute in my controller I 
keep
getting a nil object error.  Also, I tried calling

<%= debug(@institution) %>

in my view an this extra attribute that I added is not being reported. 
Any ideas?

Thanks,
Steven

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Re: Adding Additional Attributes to ActiveRecord?

I found the answer to my question, and will post it here in case anyone 
else has this problem.
Overiding the initialize() function can cause problems with 
ActiveRecord.

 You should instead define
Code:
def after_initialize
 # stuff

end

 -Steven

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Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

I am having this problem.  I wanted to write a custom initializer that 
takes some arguments, but of course, everything puked.  I thought this 
would work:

class Foo < AcitveRecord::Base
  initialize(some_arg)
    super
    @my_var1 = somer_arg.something
    @my_var2 = somer_arg.something_els
  end
end

Why doesn''t the call to super() make sure that all the ActiveRecord 
initialization is correctly setup?   I like the after_initialize_trick, 
although it doesn''t fix my problem; instead I''ve created a
factory
method self.build_new_foo(some_args).

- Doug

rooster wrote:
>  Re: Adding Additional Attributes to ActiveRecord?
> 
> I found the answer to my question, and will post it here in case anyone 
> else has this problem.
> Overiding the initialize() function can cause problems with 
> ActiveRecord.
> 
>  You should instead define
> Code:
> def after_initialize
>  # stuff
> 
> end
> 
>  -Steven

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I believe the ActiveRecord initialize method is expecting an 
argument.......check source from svn.  Anyway, if you''re going to 
overide initialize and you want to make sure everything gets setup 
right, do:

def initialize(attributes = nil)
  super(attributes)
end


Douglas De Couto wrote:
> I am having this problem.  I wanted to write a custom initializer that 
> takes some arguments, but of course, everything puked.  I thought this 
> would work:
> 
> class Foo < AcitveRecord::Base
>   initialize(some_arg)
>     super
>     @my_var1 = somer_arg.something
>     @my_var2 = somer_arg.something_els
>   end
> end
> 
> Why doesn''t the call to super() make sure that all the
ActiveRecord
> initialization is correctly setup?   I like the after_initialize_trick, 
> although it doesn''t fix my problem; instead I''ve created
a factory
> method self.build_new_foo(some_args).
> 
> - Doug
> 
> rooster wrote:
>>  Re: Adding Additional Attributes to ActiveRecord?
>> 
>> I found the answer to my question, and will post it here in case anyone
>> else has this problem.
>> Overiding the initialize() function can cause problems with 
>> ActiveRecord.
>> 
>>  You should instead define
>> Code:
>> def after_initialize
>>  # stuff
>> 
>> end
>> 
>>  -Steven

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