Rails - Jun 2006 - Problem with instance variables

Im developing a User model for my application (newbie stuff, but I have 
to start somewhere). I followed the tutorial at 
http://sonjayatandon.com/05-2006/how-to-build-a-secured-web-application-with-ruby-on-rails/
and decided to add an email field. The problem is that the email is not 
being saved on the database and I end up with two email variables: 
@email and email.

  validates_presence_of :user_name, :password, :password_confirmation, 
:email #:email was added by myself
  validates_uniqueness_of :user_name

  # email getter
  def email
    @email
  end

  #email setter
  def email=(eml)
    emailRE= /[\w._%-]+@[\w.-]+.[a-zA-Z]{2,4}/
    if eml =~ emailRE
      @email = eml
    else
	  # display error message
    end
  end

Check a sample output from the console:
>> july = User.new(:user_name => "july", :password =>
"secret", :password_confir
mation => "secret")
=> #<User:0x358e3e0 @password_confirmation="secret", 
@attributes={"ip2"=>nil, "a
ctive_user"=>0, "password_salt"=>"W9C7g8i+",
"validateip"=>true,
"ip2_updated"=>
nil,
"password_hash"=>"75412fccdfc4dc313215913bf2789b67f6a23315",
"user_name"=>"
july", "ip1_updated"=>nil, "ip1"=>nil,
"email"=>""}, @password="secret",
@new_re
cord=true>
>> july.email="test@email.com"
=> "test@email.com"
>> july.email
=> "test@email.com"
>> july
=> #<User:0x358e3e0 @password_confirmation="secret", 
@email="test@email.com", @a
ttributes={"ip2"=>nil, "active_user"=>0,
"password_salt"=>"W9C7g8i+",
"validatei
p"=>true, "ip2_updated"=>nil, 
"password_hash"=>"75412fccdfc4dc313215913bf2789b67
f6a23315", "user_name"=>"july",
"ip1_updated"=>nil, "ip1"=>nil,
"email"=>""}, @p
assword="secret", @new_record=true>

Regards,
Roberto

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

Roberto Rivera wrote:
>   # email getter
>   def email
>     @email
>   end
> 
>   #email setter
>   def email=(eml)
>     emailRE= /[\w._%-]+@[\w.-]+.[a-zA-Z]{2,4}/
>     if eml =~ emailRE
>       @email = eml
>     else
> 	  # display error message
>     end
>   end
Well you aren''t writing it ot the DB, you''re writing it to an
instance
variable.

You are trying way too hard here.  You (almost) never need explicit 
getters and setters for database fields.  Simply add the field to your 
database table, and it magically becomes available with a getter and a 
setter.  No changes to your model necesary, at all.  Active Record is 
that cool.

And if you want that validation, just add a second line of validation 
that looks like:

  validates_format_of :email, :with => /[\w._%-]+@[\w.-]+.[a-zA-Z]{2,4}/

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