So I apologize for how noobish these questions may seem. I'm new to rails and as a first task I also brought in Neo4J as it seemed like the best fit if I grow the project.
I'll explain the flow of actions then show some example code. I'm trying to add in step 3-5 now.
As 3-5 only needs to happen when the user first joins, I thought I could do this in a method associated with after_save callback. There is a flaw to this logic though as I will need to update the user at some point with additional attributes and it will call after_save again. Can I prevent this from occurring with update?
SessionsController for reference
def create
user = User.from_omniauth(env["omniauth.auth"])
session[:user_id] = user.id
redirect_to root_url
end
def destroy
session.delete(:user_id)
redirect_to root_path
end
So in my user.rb I have something like this
has_many :both, :friendships
after_save :check_friends
def self.from_omniauth(auth)
@user = User.where(auth.slice(:provider, :uid)).first
unless @user
@user = User.new
# assign a bunch of attributes to @user
@user.save!
end
return @user
end
def facebook
@facebook ||= Koala::Facebook::API.new(oauth_token)
block_given? ? yield(@facebook) : @facebook
rescue Koala::Facebook::APIError => e
logger.info e.to_s
nil
end
def friends_count
facebook { |fb| fb.get_connection("me", "friends", summary: {}) }
end
def check_friends(friendships)
facebook.get_connection("me", "friends").each do |friend|
friend_id = friend["id"]
friend_node = User.where(friend_id)
Friendship.create_friendship(user,friend_node)
return true
end
end
friendship.rb
from_class User
to_class User
type 'friendship'
def self.create_friendship(user,friend_node)
friendship = Friendship.create(from_node: user, to_node: friend_node)
end
I'm not sure if I'm on the right track with how to create a relationship node. As I just created @user, how do I incorporate that into my check_friends method and retrieve the user and friend node so properly so I can link the two together.
Right now it doesn't know that user and friend_user are nodes
If you see other bad code practice, please let me know!
In advance: Thanks for the help @subvertallchris. I'm sure you will be answering lots of my questions like this one.
This is a really great question! I think that you're on the right track but there are a few things you can change.
First, you need to adjust that has_many method. Your associations always need to terminate at a node, not ActiveRel classes, so you need to rewrite that as something like this:
has_many :both, :friends, model_class: 'User', rel_class: 'Friendship'
You'll run into some problems otherwise.
You may want to consider renaming your relationship type in the interest of Neo4j stylistic consistency. I have a lot of bad examples out there, so sorry if I gave you bad ideas. FRIENDS_WITH would be a better relationship name.
As for handling your big problem, there's a lot you can do here.
EDIT! Crap, I forgot the most important part! Ditch that after_save callback and make the load existing/create new user behavior two methods.
class SessionsController < ApplicationController
def create
user = User.from_omniauth(env["omniauth.auth"])
@user = user.nil? ? User.create_from_omniauth(env["omniauth.auth"]) : user
session[:user_id] = @user.id
redirect_to root_url
end
def destroy
session.delete(:user_id)
redirect_to root_path
end
end
class User
include Neo4j::ActiveNode
# lots of other properties
has_many :both, :friends, model_class: 'User', rel_class: 'Friendship'
def self.from_omniauth(auth)
User.where(auth.slice(:provider, :uid)).limit(1).first
end
def self.create_from_omniauth(auth)
user = User.new
# assign a bunch of attributes to user
if user.save!
user.check_friends
else
# raise an error -- your user was neither found nor created
end
user
end
# more stuff
end
That'll solve your problem with getting it started. You may want to wrap the whole thing in a transaction, so read about that in the wiki.
But we're not done. Let's look at your original check_friends:
def check_friends(friendships)
facebook.get_connection("me", "friends").each do |friend|
friend_id = friend["id"]
friend_node = User.where(friend_id)
Friendship.create_friendship(user,friend_node)
return true
end
end
You're not actually passing it an argument, so get rid of that. Also, if you know you're only looking for a single node, use find_by. I'm going to assume there's a facebook_id property on each user.
def check_friends
facebook.get_connection("me", "friends").each do |friend|
friend_node = User.find_by(facebook_id: friend["id"])
Friendship.create_friendship(user,friend_node) unless friend_node.blank?
end
end
The create_friendship method should should return true or false, so just make that the last statement of the method does that and you can return whatever it returns. That's as easy as this:
def self.create_friendship(user, friend_node)
Friendship.new(from_node: user, to_node: friend_node).save
end
create does not return true or false, it returns the resultant object, so chaining save to your new object will get you what you want. You don't need to set a variable there unless you plan on using it more within the method.
At this point, you can easily add an after_create callback to your ActiveRel model that will do something on from_node, which is always the User you just created. You can update the user's properties however you need to from there. Controlling this sort of behavior is exactly why ActiveRel exists.
I'd probably rework it a bit more, still. Start by moving your facebook stuff into a module. It'll keep your User model cleaner and more focused.
# models/concerns/facebook.rb
module Facebook
extend ActiveSupport::Concern
def facebook
@facebook ||= Koala::Facebook::API.new(oauth_token)
block_given? ? yield(@facebook) : @facebook
rescue Koala::Facebook::APIError => e
logger.info e.to_s
nil
end
def friends_count
facebook { |fb| fb.get_connection("me", "friends", summary: {}) }
end
end
# now back in User...
class User
include Neo4j::ActiveNode
include Facebook
# more code...
end
It's really easy for your models to become these messy grab bags. A lot of blogs will encourage this. Fight the urge!
This should be a good start. Let me know if you have any questions or if I screwed anything up, there's a lot of code and it's possible I may need to clarify or tweak some of it. Hope it helps, though.