On Saturday, May 21, 2011 12:54:32 PM UTC-6, Alex N wrote: > > I know the debate of whether this should validate has been rehashed > many times. My question is, what are the consequences of overriding > this method to force validation? Will this break fundamental things? > Will it break plugins? Is there a reason not to have a strict > validation option? > > In my code I will never use this as I consider it a terribly broken > method, but some gems use it and in one case I was just burned. >
I can't comment on whether overriding #update_attribute would "break fundamental things" or not. However... I would consider the gem in your project that uses it broken and raise the use of this method within said gem with the gem author. For a gem to blindly use it does seem unsafe _unless_ such behavior is well-known and documented. If, for performance reasons, some gem wants to do unvalidated writes to the database, that's find _if_ the gem provides copious warning/documentation and/or its own dual-API that corresponds to the rails validated/unvalidated DB access. If I were you and I really wanted to monkey-patch #update_attribute to validate, I'd just create a test/feature branch of my project and try it out. If it doesn't break anything (and performance is fine) then cool. Otherwise you then have the answer to your question. Anyhow, that's just my $0.02 > > I do not want invalid objects in my database under any circumstances, > since the rest of my code rationally depends on validations - e.g. I > don't check for null associations when the association is validated to > be there. > > For the uninitiated, update_attribute: > > 1) Does not ever validate the object, causing a massive hole in your > validation schemes. For instance, if a validation depends on anything > you update with update_attribute, that validation will not work. > > 2) Updates ALL fields if the object has been modified. @user.email = > 'invalidemail'; @user.update_attribute(:state, 'registered'); will > always put an invalid email in your database. > > 3) Saves the object regardless of whether it's been persisted. E.g. > User.new.update_attribute(:state, 'registered') will always save a new > user object, even if you have all kinds of validations to guarantee > associations and properties are present. This is likely to seriously > break your application if it happens. > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en.
