Rails - Jan 2006 - help me understand association attributes

I have a model with a belongs_to association. The first model is called
Thing and the associated model is User. I''m attempting to assign the
user to
the thing.

To accomplish this I used a before_save method, like this:

class Thing < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :created_by, :class_name => "User", :foreign_key =>
"created_by_user_id"

  def before_create
        self.created_by = get_user()
  end

I had trouble getting the assignment to work. I initially tried simply

        created_by = get_user()

(no ''self'') I don''t know why ''self''
made a difference in this case. Can
anyone explain this to me?

Thank you.

-Kelly
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Kelly Dwight Felkins wrote:
>   def before_create
>         self.created_by = get_user()
>   end
> 
> I had trouble getting the assignment to work. I initially tried simply
> 
>         created_by = get_user()
> 
> (no ''self'') I don''t know why
''self'' made a difference in this case. Can
> anyone explain this to me?
Have a read of this:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ruby/browse_frm/thread/b0b54ca108fb589d

-- 
We develop, watch us RoR, in numbers too big to ignore.

Thank you.
-Kelly


On 1/2/06, Mark Reginald James <mrj@bigpond.net.au>
wrote:
>
> Kelly Dwight Felkins wrote:
>
> >   def before_create
> >         self.created_by = get_user()
> >   end
> >
> > I had trouble getting the assignment to work. I initially tried simply
> >
> >         created_by = get_user()
> >
> > (no ''self'') I don''t know why
''self'' made a difference in this case. Can
> > anyone explain this to me?
>
> Have a read of this:
>
>
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ruby/browse_frm/thread/b0b54ca108fb589d
>
> --
> We develop, watch us RoR, in numbers too big to ignore.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>
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