MultiparameterAssignmentErrors when feeding a bogus day/month combination into a date_select--how best to remedy?

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hey All,

My user just got bit by this problem (in my rails version 2.0.2 app):

That is, if you use the date_select generated list boxes to select a nonexistant date like say, April 31st, you get a stack trace like this here:

  c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.0.2/lib/active_record/base.rb:2397:in `execute_callstack_for_multiparameter_attributes'   c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.0.2/lib/active_record/base.rb:2377:in `assign_multiparameter_attributes'   c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.0.2/lib/active_record/base.rb:2120:in `attributes='   c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.0.2/lib/active_record/base.rb:2033:in `update_attributes'   app/controllers/projects_controller.rb:76:in `update'   app/controllers/projects_controller.rb:75:in `update'

You get the same exception if you

So... is there some particularly good place to fix this? I can certainly pull the date components out of params in my controller, try a Date.parse() on them & give the user a better error message. But I've got date_select's in lots of different places in my app & would love it if I could just fix it in one spot...

I've looked in the attributes=() method in ar:base, but am a bit daunted by it--have a hard time imagining I'm going to do more good than harm in there... :frowning:

Anybody got ideas for me?

Thanks!

-Roy

Roy Pardee Research Analyst/Programmer Group Health Center For Health Studies (Cancer Research Network) (206) 287-2078 Google Talk: rpardee

2

This seems to work, but it's hardly DRY:

  def update     @project = Project.find(params[:id])     respond_to do |format|       begin         if @project.update_attributes(params[:project])           flash[:notice] = 'Project was successfully updated.'           format.html { redirect_to(@project) }           format.xml { head :ok }         else           format.html { render :action => "edit" }           format.xml { render :xml => @project.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }         end       rescue ActiveRecord::MultiparameterAssignmentErrors         @project.errors.add("end_date" , "May be bogus")         @project.errors.add("start_date", "May be bogus")         format.html { render :action => "edit" }         format.xml { render :xml => @project.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }       end     end   end

I'd have to repeat that for every update and create action :stuck_out_tongue:

It looks like the root cause is that Date.new(), unlike other constructors in ruby (I think?), throws an ArgumentError exception if you give it something it doesn't understand. The others seem to give a default value (e.g., 0 for integers, false for booleans).

I dug a little deeper in ar:base.rb--still don't see a good place to muck around in there. :frowning: