Rails Order Find By Boolean - ruby-on-rails-3

I have a simple find in rails 3 that gathers users accounts.
Account.where(:user_id => #user)
The Account model has a 'default' boolean field. As a user adds many accounts I would like the default account to always be first in the loop. Order doesn't seem to work with a boolean field.
Account.where(:user_id => #user, :order => "default DESC")
Is there a way to order the query to handle this or should I just split the queries and find the default account in a separate find?

Try Account.where(:user_id => #user).order("default DESC") - putting :order in your where() clause isn't going to sort the result set.
A cleaner solution might be to add a scope, though.
scope :default_first, order(arel_table[:default].desc)
Then you could just call (assuming your relations are set up properly):
#user.accounts.default_first.all

Related

An efficient way to track user login dates and IPs history

I'm trying to track user login history for stat purposes but its not clear to me what the best way to go about it would be. I could have a separate table that records users and their login stats with a date, but that table could get REALLY big. I could track some historic fields in the User model/object itself in a parse-able field and just update it (them) with some delimited string format. e.g. split on :, get the last one, if an included date code isn't today, add an item (date+count) otherwise increment, then save it back. At least with this second approach it would be easy to remove old items (e.g. only keep 30 days of daily logins, or IPs), as a separate table would require a task to delete old records.
I'm a big fan of instant changes. Tasks are useful, but can complicate things for maintenance reasons.
Anyone have any suggestions? I don't have an external data caching solution up or anything yet. Any pointers are also welcome! (I've been hunting for similar questions and answers)
Thanks!
If you have the :trackable module, I found this the easiest way. In the User model (or whichever model you're authenticating)
def update_tracked_fields!(request)
old_signin = self.last_sign_in_at
super
if self.last_sign_in_at != old_signin
Audit.create :user => self, :action => "login", :ip => self.last_sign_in_ip
end
end
(Inspired by https://github.com/plataformatec/devise/wiki/How-To:-Turn-off-trackable-for-admin-users)
There is a nice way to do that through Devise.
Warden sets up a hook called after_set_user that runs after setting a user. So, supposed you have a model Login containing an ip field, a logged_in_at field and user_id field, you can only create the record using this fields.
Warden::Manager.after_set_user :except => :fetch do |record, warden, options|
Login.create!(:ip => warden.request.ip, :logged_in_at => Time.now, :user_id => record.id)
end
Building upon #user208769's answer, the core Devise::Models::Trackable#update_tracked_fields! method now calls a helper method named update_tracked_fields prior to saving. That means you can use ActiveRecord::Dirty helpers to make it a little simpler:
def update_tracked_fields(request)
super
if last_sign_in_at_changed?
Audit.create(user: self, action: 'login', ip: last_sign_in_ip)
end
end
This can be simplified even further (and be more reliable given validations) if audits is a relationship on your model:
def update_tracked_fields(request)
super
audits.build(action: 'login', ip: last_sign_in_ip) if last_sign_in_at_changed?
end
Devise supports tracking the last signed in date and the last signed in ip address with it's :trackable module. By adding this module to your user model, and then also adding the correct fields to your database, which are:
:sign_in_count, :type => Integer, :default => 0
:current_sign_in_at, :type => Time
:last_sign_in_at, :type => Time
:current_sign_in_ip, :type => String
:last_sign_in_ip, :type => String
You could then override the Devise::SessionsController and it's create action to then save the :last_sign_in_at and :last_sign_in_ip to a separate table in a before_create callback. You should then be able to keep them as long you would like.
Here's an example (scribd_analytics)
create_table 'page_views' do |t|
t.column 'user_id', :integer
t.column 'request_url', :string, :limit => 200
t.column 'session', :string, :limit => 32
t.column 'ip_address', :string, :limit => 16
t.column 'referer', :string, :limit => 200
t.column 'user_agent', :string, :limit => 200
t.column 'created_at', :timestamp
end
Add a whole bunch of indexes, depending on queries
Create a PageView on every request
We used a hand-built SQL query to take out the ActiveRecord overhead on
this
Might try MySQL's 'insert delayed´
Analytics queries are usually hand-coded SQL
Use 'explain select´ to make sure MySQL isusing the indexes you expect
Scales pretty well
BUT analytics queries expensive, can clog upmain DB server
Our solution:
use two DB servers in a master/slave setup
move all the analytics queries to the slave
http://www.scribd.com/doc/49575/Scaling-Rails-Presentation-From-Scribd-Launch
Another option to check is Gattica with Google Analytics
I hate answering my own questions, especially given that you both gave helpful answers. I think answering my question with the approach I took might help others, in combination with your answers.
I've been playing with the Impressionist Gem (the only useful page view Gem since the abandoned RailStat) with good results so far. After setting up the basic migration, I found that the expected usage follows Rail's MVC design very closely. If you add "impressionist" to a Controller, it will go looking for the Model when logging the page view to the database. You can modify this behaviour or just call impressionist yourself in your Controller (or anywhere really) if you're like me and happen to be testing it out on a Controller that doesn't have a Model.
Anyways, I got it working with Devise to track successful logins by overriding the Devise::SessionsController and just calling the impressionist method for the #current_member: (don't forget to check if it's nil! on failed login)
class TestSessionController < Devise::SessionsController
def create
if not #current_member.nil?
impressionist(#current_member)
end
super
end
end
Adding it to other site parts later for some limited analytics is easy to do. The only other thing I had to do was update my routes to use the new TestSessionController for the Devise login route:
post 'login' => 'test_session#create', :as => :member_session
Devise works like normal without having to modify Devise in anyway, and my impressionist DB table is indexed and logging logins. I'll just need a rake task later to trim it weekly or so.
Now I just need to work out how to chart daily logins without having to write a bunch of looping, dirty queries...
There is also 'paper_trail' gem, that allows to track model changes.

named_scope and .first?

I can return a collection of objects, with only one (:limit => 1) but is there a way to return the .first() object only, like not within a collection?
named_scope :profile, :conditions => {:association => 'owner', :resource_type => 'Profile'}, :limit => 1 # => collection of 1 profile but I want the profile only NOT in a collection or array
the workaround is simply to apply .first() to the results, but I'd just like to clean up the code and make it less error prone.
You'll probably need to create a class method instead:
def self.profile
where(:association => 'owner', :resource_type => 'Profile').first
end
Note that with Rails 3 you should be using the where(...) syntax, and that when doing .first, you don't need to specify the limit.
First off, if you're using Rails 3 you should be using scope instead of named_scope. Same thing, different, err, name (named_scope will still work, but it is deprecated). Now that that is out of the way…
A scope (or named scope) takes two arguments (a symbol and either a lambda or a hash) and defines a class method on that model that returns an ActiveRecord::Relation, which is why you're able to chain methods on it.
first, like find or all, returns an actual result from the database. For this reason it won't work in a scope.
All that said, you can define your own class method on your model that gives the behavior you're wanting (as 2 people already answered while I was typing this). This is actually recommended over using scopes by many well-respected devs in the Rails community. Since using the scope class macro just defines class methods itself anyways, there isn't really a downside to this, and it has the benefit of flexibility (like in your case here).
Define a class method to do this:
def profile
where(:association => "owner", :resource_type => 'Profile').first
end
The first already does an implicit limit 1 on the query, AND will order it by the primary key of the table so you'll always get the first.

How can I find records whose :name do NOT equal an array provided by another query?

Currently my users can add locations to their profiles via a form which includes this statement: (I'm using RoR3, HAML, sqlite3 for dev, and mysql for prod)
= select_tag "id", options_from_collection_for_select(Location.all, 'id', 'name')
However, this allows the user to add the same location multiple times. I would like to list only the locations which the user has NOT already posted. So I would like to do something like:
Location.find(:all, :conditions => ["name != ?", user.locations])
This of course does not work whereas this does.
Location.find(:all, :conditions => ["name != ?", "New York"])
That's because user.locations returns an array. I haven't the slightest idea how to proceed at this point. Other than learning SQL I suppose. Is there a method for this that I'm not finding?
Something like:
Location.find(:all, :conditions => ["name not in (?)", user.locations])
should do it (although admittedly less efficient than doing an outer join and filtering null user_ids ) depending on what your array of "user.locations" actually are.
As a side note, learning SQL will make you a much more capable (and marketable) web-developer ... food for thought.

Problem with active-record and sql

I have a little problem: I can't compose sql-query inside AR.
So, I have Project and Task models, Project has_many Tasks. Task has aasm-field (i.e. "status"; but it doesn't matter, i can be simple int or string field).
So, I want on my projects index page list all (last) projects and for every project I want count it's active, pending and resolved (for example) tasks.
Like this, just look:
First project (1 active, 2 pending,
10 resolved)
Second projects (4
active, 2 pending, 2 resolved)
So, sure I can do it with #projects = Project.all and then in view:
- #projects.each do |project|
= project.title
= project.tasks(:conditions => {:status => "active"}).count #sure it should be in model, just for example
= project.tasks(:conditions => {:status => "pending"}).count
# ...
- end
This is good, but makes 1+N*3 (for 3 task statuses) queries, i want 1. The question is simple: how?.
You could do a find with grouping and counting. Something like:
status_counts = project.tasks.find(:all,
:group => 'status',
:select => 'status, count(*) as how_many')
This will return you a list of Task-like objects with status and how_many attributes which you can then use to give your summary. E.g.
<%= status_counts.map { |sc| "#{sc.how_many} #{sc.status} }.to_sentence %>
Maybe you could, in your Project controller:
Fetch all your projects: Project.all
Fetch all your tasks: Task.all
Then, create a hash with something like
#statuses = Hash.new
#tasks.each do |t|
#statuses[:t.project_id][:t.status] += 1
end
And then use it in your view:
First project (<%= #statuses[:#project.object_id][:active] %> active)
This is not the prefect solution, but it is easy to implement and only use two (big) queries. Of course, this would re-create a hash every time, so you might want to look into database indexes or cache systems.
Also, named scopes would be interesting, like Task.active.
I'd suggest using a counter cache in your project model to prevent needing to recount all tasks on each display of the index page - have an active_count, pending_count and resolved_count, and update them whenever the task changes state.
If you just want to modify your existing code, try:
project.tasks.count(:conditions => "status = 'active'")
You could also add a scope to your task model that would enable you to do something like:
project.tasks.active.count
EDIT
Ok so I'm half asleep - got the wrong impression from your question :/
Yep, you can do it in one query - use find_by_sql to get your projects along with the grouped counts for the tasks. You'll be able to access the group counts in the resulting array of projects.
So, the right answer is:
Projects.all(:joins => :tasks,
:select => 'projects.*,
sum(tasks.status="pending") as pending_count,
sum(tasks.status = "accepted") as accepted_count,
sum(tasks.status = "rejected") as rejected_count',
:group => 'projects.id')

My Rails queries are starting to get complicated, should I switch to raw SQL queries? What do you do?

My Rails app is starting to need complicated queries. Should I just start using raw SQL queries? What is the trend in the Rails community?
Update:
I do not have written queries right now, I wanted to ask this question before I start. But here is an example of what I want to do:
I have books which have categories. I want to say-
Give me all books that were:
-created_at (added to store) between date1 and date2
-updated_at before date3
-joined with books that exist in shopping carts right now
I haven't written the query yet but I think the rails version will be something like this:
books_to_consider = Book.find(:all,
:conditions => "created_at <= '#{date2}' AND created_at >= '#{date1}' AND updated_at <= '#{date3}'",
:joins => "as b inner join carts as c on c.book_id = b.id")
I am not saying ActiveRecord can't handle this query, but is it more accepted to go with raw SQL for readability (or maybe there are other limitations I don't know of yet)?
The general idea is to stick to ActiveRecord-generated queries as much as possible, and use SQL fragments only where necessary. SQL fragments are explicitly supported because the creators of ActiveRecord realised that SQL cannot be completely abstracted away.
Using the the find method without SQL fragments is generally rewarded with better maintainability. Given your example, try:
Book.find(:all,
:conditions => ["created_at >= ? AND created_at <= ? AND updated_at <= ?",
date1, date2, date3]
:include => :carts)
The :inlude => :carts will do the join if you added has_many :carts to your Book model. As you can see, there does not have to be much SQL involved. Even the quoting and escaping of input can be left to Rails, while still using SQL literals to handle the >= and <= operators.
Going a little bit further, you can make it even clearer:
class Book < AciveRecord::Base
# Somewhere in your Book model:
named_scope :created_between, lambda { |start_date, end_date|
{ :conditions => { :created_at => start_date..end_date } }
}
named_scope :updated_before, lambda { |date|
{ :conditions => ["updated_at <= ?", date] }
}
# ...
end
Book.created_between(date1, date2).updated_before(date3).find(:all,
:include => :carts)
Update: the point of the named_scopes is, of course, to reuse the conditions. It's up to you to decide whether or not it makes sense to put a set of conditions in a named scope or not.
Like molf is saying with :include, .find() has the advantage of eager loading of children.
Also, there are several plugins, like pagination, that will wrap the find function. You'll have to use .find() to use the plugins.
If you have a really complex sql query remember that .find() uses your exact parameter string. You can always inject your own sql code:
:conditions => ["id in union (select * from table...
And don't forget there are a lot of optional parameters for .find()
:conditions - An SQL fragment like "administrator = 1", [ "user_name = ?", username ], or ["user_name = :user_name", { :user_name => user_name }]. See conditions in the intro.
:order - An SQL fragment like "created_at DESC, name".
:group - An attribute name by which the result should be grouped. Uses the GROUP BY SQL-clause.
:having - Combined with +:group+ this can be used to filter the records that a GROUP BY returns. Uses the HAVING SQL-clause.
:limit - An integer determining the limit on the number of rows that should be returned.
:offset - An integer determining the offset from where the rows should be fetched. So at 5, it would skip rows 0 through 4.
:joins - Either an SQL fragment for additional joins like "LEFT JOIN comments ON comments.post_id = id" (rarely needed), named associations in the same form used for the :include option, which will perform an INNER JOIN on the associated table(s), or an array containing a mixture of both strings and named associations. If the value is a string, then the records will be returned read-only since they will have attributes that do not correspond to the table‘s columns. Pass :readonly => false to override.
:include - Names associations that should be loaded alongside. The symbols named refer to already defined associations. See eager loading under Associations.
:select - By default, this is "*" as in "SELECT * FROM", but can be changed if you, for example, want to do a join but not include the joined columns. Takes a string with the SELECT SQL fragment (e.g. "id, name").
:from - By default, this is the table name of the class, but can be changed to an alternate table name (or even the name of a database view).
:readonly - Mark the returned records read-only so they cannot be saved or updated.
:lock - An SQL fragment like "FOR UPDATE" or "LOCK IN SHARE MODE". :lock => true gives connection‘s default exclusive lock, usually "FOR UPDATE".
src: http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Base.html#M002553