Rails: Comparison of assignable_values and Active Record enum types

We are using assignable_values Show archive.org snapshot for managing enum values in Rails. Nevertheless Rails is adding more support for enum attributes Show archive.org snapshot , allowing to have a closer look at the current feature set in comparison to our still preferred option assignable_values.

Active Record enum attribute interface

By default Rails is mapping enum attributes Show archive.org snapshot to integers:

class Conversation < ActiveRecord::Base
  enum :status, [ :active, :archived ]
end

class CreateConversations < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.1]
  def change
    create_table :conversations do |t|
      t.integer :status

      t.timestamps
    end
  end
end

Conversation.create!(status: 'active')
Conversation.first.status # => 'active'
Conversation.first.attributes_before_type_cast['status'] # => 0

It is still possible to map the enum attribute to an enumerated database type:

class Conversation < ActiveRecord::Base
  enum :status, active: 'active', archived: 'archived'
end

class CreateConversations < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.1]
  def change
    create_enum :status, ['active', 'archived']

    create_table :conversations do |t|
      t.enum :status, enum_type: :status, null: false

      t.timestamps
    end
  end
end

Conversation.create!(status: 'active')
Conversation.first.status # => 'active'
Conversation.first.attributes_before_type_cast['status'] # => 'active'

With the validate option you can add errors to the attribute for unknown attributes:

class Conversation < ActiveRecord::Base
  enum :status, { active: 'active', archived: 'archived' }, validate: true
end

Conversation.create!(status: 'unknown') #=> Validation failed: Status is not included in the list (ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid)

Comparison with assignable_values

No support for array columns
No support for allowing values based on other conditions Show archive.org snapshot (e.g. archived is only allowed, when the conversation has no unread messages)
No support to skip validating values, when they did not change Show archive.org snapshot (e.g. archived is removed as option and the record will be invalid without a data migration)
No support for Active Record associations Show archive.org snapshot
No out of the box I18n support for translating the database values

But:

Better support for the enumerated database type Show archive.org snapshot and therefore better suited for performance optimizations
Removing an enum value that exists on records will make their getter return nil
Neat features the generated instance methods, prefix/suffix options and scopes

Emanuel

makandra.de

Say thanks1

Last edit

2024-05-16

Felix Eschey

License

Source code in this card is licensed under the MIT License.

assignable_values 0.11.0 can return intended assignable values

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class Song < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :artist
  belongs_to :record_label

  assign...

ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound errors allow you to query the :name and :id of the model that could not be found

ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound errors provide quite meaningful error messages that can provide some insight on application details. Consider the following:

ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound: Couldn't find Organisation::Membership with 'id'=12 [WHE...

Rails: Comparison of Dates - before? and after?

tl;dr

Since Rails 6+ you can use before? and after? to check if a date/time is before or after another date/time.

Example

christmas = Date.parse('24.12.2022')
date_of_buying_a_gift = Date.parse('12.12.2022')

date_of_b...

Posted by Emanuel to makandra dev (2024-05-13 13:19)

Rails: Comparison of assignable_values and Active Record enum types

Active Record enum attribute interface

Comparison with assignable_values

Related cards:

tl;dr

Example

Example