Two models one form. A lot of headache

Thiago_Guerra · November 4, 2007, 4:09pm

Hi everyone,

I building a sign up form using two models. One to keep the regular user information and the second to keep login and password. I got everything working out except for some little details that I can't figure out how to handle.

My models are User and Login. Login has_one User and User belongs_to Login. Using the User controller I built a action called new which display the signup form and save the information in the two different databases. The action is working except for the fact that is not saving the Login id in the column login_id at User as was supposed to do and for some weird reason is not saving the boolean fields in any of the databases.

Below I'm pasting my codes so you can give me some light.

#database structure

class CreateUsers < ActiveRecord::Migration def self.up create_table :users do |t| t.column :full_name, :string t.column :street_address, :text t.column :city, :string t.column :state, :string t.column :country, :string t.column :zip_code, :integer t.column :phone, :integer t.column :email, :string t.column :birth_date, :date t.column :policy_agreement, :boolean t.column :created_at, :timestamp t.column :updated_at, :timestamp end end

def self.down drop_table :users end end

class CreateLogins < ActiveRecord::Migration def self.up create_table :logins do |t| t.column :login, :string t.column :password, :string t.column :ip_address, :string t.column :status, :boolean end add_column :users, :login_id, :integer end

def self.down drop_table :logins remove_column :users, :login_id end end

#models code

class Login < ActiveRecord::Base has_one :users validates_uniqueness_of :login validates_presence_of :login validates_confirmation_of :password, :message => "should match confirmation." end

class User < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :logins

validates_presence_of :full_name validates_presence_of :street_address validates_presence_of :city validates_presence_of :state validates_presence_of :country validates_presence_of :zip_code validates_numericality_of :zip_code, :only_integer => true, :message => "must contain only numbers." validates_presence_of :phone validates_numericality_of :phone, :only_integer => true, :message => "must contain only numbers." validates_presence_of :email validates_format_of :email, :with => /^([^@\s]+)@((?:[-a-z0-9]+\.)+[a- z]{2,})$/i validates_uniqueness_of :email validates_acceptance_of :policy_agreement, :message => "must be accepted. You have to read and agree with the Aykall Policies before signing in." validates_multiparameter_assignments :message => " is not a valid date." validates_each :birth_date do |record, attr, value| record.errors.add attr, "is not a valid date. You must be at least 18 years old to sign in." if value > Date.new((Date.today.year - 18),(Date.today.month),(Date.today.day)) end end

# controller code

class UserController < ApplicationController layout 'standard'

def new case request.method when :post @user = User.new(params[:user]) @login = Login.new(params[:login]) @user.valid? @login.valid? if @user.save flash[:notice] = 'Your use account was successfully created.' redirect_to :action => 'search' end end end

end

# view code

<%= error_messages_for 'user', 'login' -%>

<% form_for :user, @user, :url => { :action => "new" } do |user_form| %> Full Name: <%= user_form.text_field :full_name %> Street Address: <%= user_form.text_field :street_address %> Country: <%= user_form.country_select :country %> State: <%= user_form.text_field :state %> City: <%= user_form.text_field :city %> Zip Code: <%= user_form.text_field :zip_code %> Phone: <%= user_form.text_field :phone %> email: <%= user_form.text_field :email %> Policy Agreement: <%= user_form.check_box :policy_agreement %> Birthdate: <%= user_form.date_select :birth_date, :use_short_month => true, :start_year => 1900, :order => [:month, :day, :year] %>

<% fields_for :login, @login do |login_form| %> Login: <%= login_form.text_field :login %> Password: <%= login_form.password_field :password %> Password Confirmation: <%= login_form.password_field :password_confirmation %> <%= login_form.hidden_field :ip_address, :value => request.env['REMOTE_IP'] %> <%= login_form.hidden_field :status, :value => '0' %> <% end %> <%= submit_tag "Join Now" %>

<% end %>

Let me ask something else. Do you guys think that is safe to store passwords in a string field using MySQL? Is there any other way that is more secure?

Thanks Thiago Guerra

Thiago_Guerra · November 4, 2007, 6:40pm

First of all, thanks for your help.

I'm very new to Ruby on Rails. I'm reading the book "Ruby on Rails made Easy" and as I do it I'm trying to develop my application. So, what you are saying is that with the relation has_one and belongs_to between my two models there is no need for such a column as login_id in my User database? Rails will automatically know that the information placed in row number 132 on my users table belongs to the row 136 in my logins table? I'm just asking again because it just seems to clever to be true. kkk

Thanks, Thiago Guerra

Frederick_Cheung · November 4, 2007, 7:21pm

There's no way it's going to magically know that the login created is being created for the user in question. You probably want @user.build_login(params[:login)

Fred

Francis_Fish · November 5, 2007, 8:38am

You need the joining columns in the database. Active Record won't create them for you.

In order to express the relationships you need to use build (as last post here), otherwise you can explicitly set the ID's as you want. As it is, your relationship is bi directional so you're going to have to create one, create the other using build from the first one (which will set the foreign key context for you). Finally you are going to need to get the ID of the new record created through build and update the parent record so you have the relationship at both ends. This is because you can't know the child's key until you've created it. Once this is done it will work fine and login.user and user.login will be available to you in your code.

login.create(params[:login]) user = login.build.user(params[:user]) login.update_attribute(:user_id => user.id)

The only question for me is why have a bi-directional relationship? I have done this when I've used the acts as authenticated plugin so as not to pollute the plain user table, but if you are hand-crafting this you can do whatever you want. You can create an accessor method in the login class

def user

Hope this helps

Francis_Fish · November 5, 2007, 8:41am

.. I pressed a control key and it posted on me ...

See added in code

You need the joining columns in the database. Active Record won't create them for you.

In order to express the relationships you need to use build (as last post here), otherwise you can explicitly set the ID's as you want. As it is, your relationship is bi directional so you're going to have to create one, create the other using build from the first one (which will set the foreign key context for you). Finally you are going to need to get the ID of the new record created through build and update the parent record so you have the relationship at both ends. This is because you can't know the child's key until you've created it. Once this is done it will work fine and login.user and user.login will be available to you in your code.

login.create(params[:login]) user = login.build.user(params[:user]) login.update_attribute(:user_id => user.id)

The only question for me is why have a bi-directional relationship? I have done this when I've used the acts as authenticated plugin so as not to pollute the plain user table, but if you are hand-crafting this you can do whatever you want. You can create an accessor method in the login class

def user @user ||= User.find_by_login_id self.id end

This will give the effect you want without the bi -directional stuff in Active Record