Saving model after updating an attribute

Question

I have a variable in my model, remember_token, that is assigned a value and after that the model is successfully saved.

But with two other variables -- perishable_token and verified -- save doesn't pass database checks (I got rollbacks). So I used update_attribute.

I just tested assigning a value to remember_token and saving the model in rails console. save doesn't work here either. So I think the difference in before_save filters.

user.remember_token = "asdfa"
user.save
....
ROLLBACK

Although everything is working nice, I would be grateful if you could show me the reason behind this. Maybe there are other (better) ways?

Thanks in advance!

The following is my User model.
(I modeled email verification after AuthLogic examples, but not exactly. Also, credits to Mr Hartl's tutorial.)

# == Schema Information
#
# Table name: users
#
#  id               :integer          not null, primary key
#  name             :string(255)
#  email            :string(255)
#  created_at       :datetime         not null
#  updated_at       :datetime         not null
#  password_digest  :string(255)
#  surname          :string(255)
#  remember_token   :string(255)
#  role             :string(255)
#  perishable_token :string(255)
#  verified         :boolean          default(FALSE)
#

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :email, :name, :surname, :password, :password_confirmation
  # attr_reader :perishable_token
  attr_protected :role #look at ROLES 
  has_secure_password

  ROLES = %w[admin moderator editor author banned] << nil

  has_many :courses

  before_save { |user| user.email = email.downcase }
  before_save :create_remember_token
  # before_save :generate_perishable_token

  validates :name, presence: true, length: { maximum: 50 }
  validates :surname, presence: true, length: { maximum: 50 }
  VALID_EMAIL_REGEX = /\A[\w+\-.]+@[a-z\d\-.]+\.[a-z]+\z/i
  validates :email, presence: true, format: { with: VALID_EMAIL_REGEX }, uniqueness: { case_sensitive: false }
  validates :password, length: { minimum: 6 } #, presence:true >>because there is password_digest
  validates :password_confirmation, presence: true 
  validates :role, inclusion: { in: ROLES }

  default_scope order: 'users.surname ASC'


  def deliver_verification_instructions!
    generate_perishable_token 
    Notifier.verify_email(self).deliver
  end


  def self.find_using_perishable_token(token, 
        age = KarvonSaroy::Application.config.PERISHABLE_TOKEN_VALID_FOR)
    return if token.blank?
    age = age.to_i

    conditions_sql = "perishable_token = ?"
    conditions_subs = [token]

    if column_names.include?("updated_at") && age > 0
      conditions_sql += " and updated_at > ?"
      conditions_subs << age.seconds.ago 
    end

    where(conditions_sql, *conditions_subs).first
  end


  def verify!
    self.update_attribute(:verified, true)
    # self.verified = true
    # self.save
  end

  #used for sessions
  private
    def create_remember_token
      self.remember_token = SecureRandom.urlsafe_base64
    end

    def generate_perishable_token
      # self.perishable_token = SecureRandom.urlsafe_base64
      self.update_attribute(:perishable_token, SecureRandom.urlsafe_base64)
    end

end

Answer 1

I would guess that the reason this is not saving properly is that this model you have created in the rails console fails the validations you have set.

The suggestion by gotva that you use save! is also a helpful one as this would show you whether this is the cause of the problem.