Greetings,
This, I hope, is a simply answered question.
Based on Agile Web Development with Rails (depot application), I''m
developing a single table application for contact info. There is only
an admin side to this, so there''s always authentication.
Part of the info record (member) is changed_by and changed_at which I
automatically want updated. Changed_at looks after itself (yay!);
however changed_by doesn''t. Since I know who is accessing the table
(everyone has a user_name) I''ve stored user_name in the session. I
can retrieve and display this information to the input form that is
collecting the info, so I know that there is session[:user_name].
Getting it into the active record is more difficult. What I have done
is inside the class for member.rb I''ve added a callback method:
def before_save
self.changed_by = "Rick"
end
and this will work. However,
def before_save
self.changed_by = session[:user_name]
end
does not, complaining that session is undefined :-(.
Obviously session is not available everywhere. How do I reference the
session correctly from inside the member class?
All flames and grace welcome.
Regards,
Rick Wightman
On 3/23/06, Rick Wightman <wightman@nb.sympatico.ca> wrote:> Greetings, > > > This, I hope, is a simply answered question. > > Based on Agile Web Development with Rails (depot application), I''m > developing a single table application for contact info. There is only > an admin side to this, so there''s always authentication. > > Part of the info record (member) is changed_by and changed_at which I > automatically want updated. Changed_at looks after itself (yay!); > however changed_by doesn''t. Since I know who is accessing the table > (everyone has a user_name) I''ve stored user_name in the session. I > can retrieve and display this information to the input form that is > collecting the info, so I know that there is session[:user_name]. > > Getting it into the active record is more difficult. What I have done > is inside the class for member.rb I''ve added a callback method: > > def before_save > self.changed_by = "Rick" > end > > and this will work. However, > > def before_save > self.changed_by = session[:user_name] > end > > does not, complaining that session is undefined :-(. > > Obviously session is not available everywhere. How do I reference the > session correctly from inside the member class? >The first step to recovery is giving up on accessing the session from the model. That way madness lies: http://thedailywtf.com/forums/65091/ShowPost.aspx However, you do have a number of good options. Here are a couple: class Something < ActiveRecord::Base attr_writer :user def before_save return false unless @user && @user.can_update(self) self[:changed_by] = @user end end That assumes that your User model has a method "can_update()" that checks the user''s permissions. Then, in your controller, assuming @something is the instance of Something that you''re manipulating: @something.user = session[:user] @something.save Another alternative would look similar, but basically be a wrapper around save that took a user as a parameter: def save_by_user(user) raise SecurityError unless user.can_update(self) rescue nil self[:changed_by] = user self.save end
I solved the same problem with some very useful wiki entries and blogs I found... http://livsey.org/2005/07/16/adding_created_by_and_updated_by_to_rails http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/Howto+Add+created_by+and+updated_by and the accessing session[] from a model is discussed here... http://www.koziarski.net/archives/2005/07/16/environment Rick Wightman wrote:> Greetings, > > > This, I hope, is a simply answered question. > > Based on Agile Web Development with Rails (depot application), I''m > developing a single table application for contact info. There is only > an admin side to this, so there''s always authentication. > > Part of the info record (member) is changed_by and changed_at which I > automatically want updated. Changed_at looks after itself (yay!); > however changed_by doesn''t. Since I know who is accessing the table > (everyone has a user_name) I''ve stored user_name in the session. I can > retrieve and display this information to the input form that is > collecting the info, so I know that there is session[:user_name]. > > Getting it into the active record is more difficult. What I have done > is inside the class for member.rb I''ve added a callback method: > > def before_save > self.changed_by = "Rick" > end > > and this will work. However, > > def before_save > self.changed_by = session[:user_name] > end > > does not, complaining that session is undefined :-(. > > Obviously session is not available everywhere. How do I reference the > session correctly from inside the member class? > > All flames and grace welcome. > > Regards, > > Rick Wightman > > _______________________________________________ > Rails mailing list > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails > > >