Ruby on rails. Update attribute when date passes

Question

I feel this is a very noob question but here goes.

I have a model (gig) with a datetime attribute (date), and an expired boolean attribute (expired).

I want the expired boolean to set to true when the datetime date passes todays date.

In Gig model:

def expired
  if self.date.to_date > Date.today
    self.update(:expired, true)
  end
end

doesn't work. Neither does:

def expired
  if self('date < ?', Date.today)
    self.update_attribute(:expired, true)
  end
end

I feel this should be very simple but I cant find much info on this.

Answer 1

It's relevant to know the purpose of the boolean. If your goal is to be able to create a property to use in where queries throughout your code (e.g., getting all expired gigs), then a scope might be a good way to go. Just add this code to your Gig model:

scope :expired, -> { where('date < ?', Time.current.beginning_of_day) }

You could then get all the expired gigs by writing:

Gig.expired

Then you don't need the expired boolean at all. If you use your current method approach, you'd have to use a background process to set expired booleans everyday. See http://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_record_querying.html#scopes for more information on using scopes.