how to access column value after serialization activerecord - ruby-on-rails-3

I have a simple model like this:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
serialize :preferences
end
I want to access the raw value from mysql, not value before serialize. Is it possible?
I know I can use
ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute("select * from users")
But I want to access from the User model.

Updated
Ok, this is what you are looking for:
User.find(params[:id]).attributes_before_type_cast["preferences"][:value]
This will return the string in its serialized form.
That is the closest you can get that I can find, it won't work if you have already gotten the object pulled from the database.
Sorry for misreading your question. You can use this from the User model too.
Leaving the old answer up just in case the other way of doing it is helpful to someone.
Old Answer
Just to be sure I understand the question, you want the raw data from the table. The data that rails serializes and puts in the database.
EX. You put in ['site_id','last_update','last_restart'] and you get "---\n- site_id\n- last_update\n- last_restart\n" and it is put in the database and saved. You want to retrieve this: "---\n- site_id\n- last_update\n- last_restart\n" from the database.
Ok, it took some fanagaling from the database but you can do it like so.
In a project I have a serialized array call devise_table_preferences that lists the preferences to display in a table in a particular order, like so:
user.devise_table_preferences = ['site_id','last_update','last_restart']
The serialized view of it is like so:
"---\n- site_id\n- last_update\n- last_restart\n"
Using your method above, I made a query like so:
preference = ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute("SELECT devise_table_preferences FROM users WHERE id = #{#user.id}")
It returns an object in the console like so:
preference = #<Mysql2::Result:0x007fe4cdf34850>
Running:
preference.first[0]
Gave me this:
"---\n- site_id\n- last_restart\n"
I know its a big work around but it will definitely give you your data in its serialized way. Hope that it helps you out.

attributes_before_type_cast didn't work for me.
User.first.instance_variable_get(:#attributes)['preferences'].serialized_value
This works even if the object is loaded.

I think these days you want to say the following:
User.find(params[:id]).typecasted_attribute_value('preferences')

Related

Ruby on rails - Sort data with SQL/ActiveRecord instead of ruby

I'm working with two tables Video and Picture and I would like to regroup them using SQL instead of ruby. This is how I do it now :
#medias = (Video.all + Picture.all).sort_by { |model| model.created_at }
Is their a way to do the same thing only with SQL/ActiveRecord?
Since you don’t have the same columns in each model you could create a polymorphic relationship with a new model called media. Your Videos and Pictures would be associated with this new model and when you need to work on only your media you don’t need to worry about whether it is a video or a picture. I’m not sure if this fits into your schema and design since there is not much info to go on from your post but this might work if you wanted to take the time to restructure your schema. This would allow you to use the query interface to access media. See the Rails Guide here:
http://guides.rubyonrails.org/association_basics.html#polymorphic-associations
You can create a media model with all the fields need to satisfy a Video or Picture object. The media model will also have a type field to keep track of what kind of media it is: Video or Picture.
Yes, using ActiveRecord's #order:
#video = Video.order(:created_at)
#pictures = Picture.order(:created_at)
#medias = #video.all + #pictures.all # Really bad idea!
Also calling all on the models like that will unnecessarily load them to memory. If you don't absolutely need all records at that time, then don't use all.
To run sql queries in Rails you could do this:
sql_statement = "Select * from ..."
#data = ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute(sql_statement)
Then in your view you could simply reference the #data object

Titanium access a model from other controller

I learned that is this how to access a model from other controller,
var book = Alloy.Models.instance('book');
And this is how to access a property of a model,
var name = book.get('name');
However in the console,the name logs [INFO] : { } , meaning this doesn't get its property value, and ofcourse the model has already a data saved on it. Thanks for your help!
You may have to fetch the collection first:
var books = Alloy.Collections.book;
books.fetch();
This will load all the models from the collection so you can use them.
although the above works, there are a few addtional points here.
the call is asynchronous in most cases so you should be getting the model in a callback which is not presented in the code above.
I dont know if fetching the collection everytime you want a model is the correct approach either? If the collection already exists you just need to get the model from the collection just using the id.
depending on the exact use case, you might just want to pass the model as a parameter from one controller to the next

Rails ActiveRecord::Relation object using including models

I need to retrieve information from two separate models which are similar but not the same. I am trying to do things like
I have looked into a few methods however they return an array of active objects rather than an
ActiveRecord::Relation which is required for many of the features of my app to work.
Is there any way to return an ActiveRecord::Relation object containing a union of both tables?
I have tried things like
#group = Mymodel.find_by_sql("SELECT id FROM Mymodels
UNION SELECT id FROM AnotherModels")
and also explored using the Model.where method however cannot return an ActiveRecord::Relation
EDIT:
Just to be clear I need to return ActiveRecord::Relation that is a union or a merge of the two tables
Have you tried MyFirstModel.joins(:my_second_models)? Check out details joins in the API here.
EDIT: Single Table Inheritance is a better solution to this problem. See comments below.
Try something like this:
Model.joins(:other_model).where("attr1" = :attr1,
{ attr1: "example" }).group(:attr1)
Since you commented about where, I added the where method on the call. You can also group everything using :group in the end.

Can anyone explain how CDbCriteria->scopes works?

I've just checked the man page of CDbCriteria, but there is not enough info about it.
This property is available since v1.1.7 and I couldn't find any help for it.
Is it for dynamically changing Model->scopes "on-the-fly"?
Scopes are an easy way to create simple filters by default. With a scope you can sort your results by specific columns automatically, limit the results, apply conditions, etc. In the links provided by #ldg there's a big example of how cool they are:
$posts=Post::model()->published()->recently()->findAll();
Somebody is retrieving all the recently published posts in one single line. They are easier to maintain than inline conditions (for example Post::model()->findAll('status=1')) and are encapsulated inside each model, which means big transparency and ease of use.
Plus, you can create your own parameter based scopes like this:
public function last($amount)
{
$this->getDbCriteria()->mergeWith(array(
'order' => 't.create_time DESC',
'limit' => $amount,
));
return $this;
}
Adding something like this into a Model will let you choose the amount of objects you want to retrieve from the database (sorted by its create time).
By returning the object itself you allow method chaining.
Here's an example:
$last3posts=Post::model()->last(3)->findAll();
Gets the last 3 items. Of course you can expand the example to almost any property in the database. Cheers
Yes, scopes can be used to change the attributes of CDbCriteria with pre-built conditions and can also be passed parameters. Before 1.1.7 you could use them in a model() query and can be chained together. See:
http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/1.1/en/database.ar#named-scopes
Since 1.1.7, you can also use scopes as a CDbCriteria property.
See: http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/1.1/en/database.arr#relational-query-with-named-scopes

Django queryset with "isnull" argument returning duplicates

I want to only return items that don't have associated images. My relationship is something like this:
class Post(models.Model):
....fields
class Photo(models.Model):
post=models.ForeignKey(Post,blank=True,null=True)
photo=models.FileField(upload_to="pics")
def __unicode__(self):
return str(self.post)
I put together the following query to return Post instances where Photo is not null:
posts=Post.objects.filter(photo__photo__isnull=False)
The problem is that it's returning multiple copies of each Post instance per the number of Photo instances that are related to the Post instance. In other words, one post has 5 photos and it is therefore returning five copies in the queryset. I've looked through the documentation and this is a bit tricky. I ended up using distinct(), but I assume that I can make it work immediately.
Thanks
To return posts that don't have associated photos, use the following query:
posts=Post.objects.filter(photo__isnull=True)
Later in your question you are using isnull=False. As you say, the resulting queryset will return each post once for every photo which is attached to it. To only include each post once in the queryset, use distinct.
posts=Post.objects.filter(photo__isnull=False).distinct()
I'm not sure why you query photo__photo__isnull in you're query -- My answer assumes you should use photo__isnull.
I'm not sure what you mean by "but I assume that I can make it work immediately", but using either distinct(), or order_by() should be the solution to your problem.