I have a form that sets the attributes of a model, however, there is an attribute that I want to set through the code. That is, I want the user to set some attributes, but I want the program to set other attributes.
Is there any way of doing this?
Example:
If I have table with a "text" column and a "user" column, I want the user to enter the text, but I want the "user" column to be set by the program. How would I accomplish this?
Sure. You could do something like this:
def create
@something = Something.new(params[:something])
@something.programmatically_set_attribute = "Some value" #Here's the part that matters
respond_to do |format|
if @host.save
format.html { redirect_to(@something, :notice => 'Something was successfully created.') }
format.xml { render :xml => @something, :status => :created, :location => @something}
else
format.html { render :action => "new" }
format.xml { render :xml => @something.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
In your form, you would just leave out the field that you don't want edited by human hands. You would also have to change the update function, as well.
If you want to ensure that only the text attribute is updateable by the user and none other you may want to use attr_accessible as follows
class MyModel < ActiveRecord::Base attr_accesssible :text end
This will ensure that only the text attribute of MyModel can be updated via mass-assignment.
