As yo explain this problem, you could just check the number of adverts the user has in the add function. Something like this pseudo code
def add
adverts = User.adverts
if adverts.length > 3
flash too many adverts
redirect back
else
all is normal and the user can add adverts
end
I can’t see a need to do this in before filters.
Trausti
Yes, the action in your adverts controller to create new adverts.
I usually call these add, not very restful I know.
Trausti
When a user wants to add an advert, what action does he call first ?
Trausti
New it is then!
and thanks, that's working a treat. Imagine this is more simple than my previously over-engineered idea.
And then when the user POSTs directly to your create action, your maximum advert limit is for naught. It might *seem* to make more sense to put this in the create action, where the advertisement is actually getting persisted to the DB or whathaveyou, but even then this seems like domain specific logic that really should go in your model. (I know I'm getting waaaay ahead of myself here, but what if this one specific controller ends up not being the only place you'll have users be able to create adverts from? More importantly I guess, keeping this in the model makes everything *much* easier to spec). A simple "maxed_adverts?" method and an "create_avert" method in the model which checks the prior would do nicely.
The User model does sound reasonable.
maxed_adverts? looks like something that checks if the user has maxed their advert limit. Maybe it looks like "def maxed_averts?; averts.count >= 3; end"? Maybe it looks different.
Call it like you would any other method on your models... I guess it helps when your starting out to always remember that Rails "models" are nothing more than instances of Ruby classes which *usually* descend from ActiveRecord::Base. Nothing magical about them but the magic you give them.