Useful bit of code (hopefully)

Hi,

I often find myself using bits of code like this inside ActiveRecord,
perhaps it’s useful for others, or others can improve on it:

###########

fix user input before validating it

before_validation :sanitize_input

santize input before actual validation is called

this uses the little methods defined below

def sanitize_input
trim %w(adres postcode woonplaats email naam telefoon mobiel)
downcase :email
empty_to_nil %w(telefoon mobiel)
end

pass in a list of fields whose values will be converted to nil

you should only use these on objects that respond to empty?

if the value is empty (this causes empty strings ‘’ to become nils)

def empty_to_nil(fields)
fields.to_a.each {|f| self[f] = nil if self[f].empty? }
end

pass in a list of fields whose values will be trimmed

def trim(fields)
fields.to_a.each {|f| self[f].strip! }
end

pass in a list of fields of this object that will be lowercased

useful for accepting only unique emails

def downcase(fields)
fields.to_a.each {|f| self[f].downcase! }
end
##########

HTH,

Jeroen

Hello Jeroen,

I often find myself using bits of code like this inside ActiveRecord,
perhaps it’s useful for others, or others can improve on it:

thanks to share this with us.

empty_to_nil %w(telefoon mobiel)
end

pass in a list of fields whose values will be converted to nil

you should only use these on objects that respond to empty?

if the value is empty (this causes empty strings ‘’ to become nils)

def empty_to_nil(fields)
fields.to_a.each {|f| self[f] = nil if self[f].empty? }
end

Another way is to make it more DSLish :

def empty_to_nil(*fields)
fields.each {|f| self[f] = nil if self[f].empty? }
end

and the same for trim and downcase (you get the idea).

so that sanitize_input looks like that :

def sanitize_input
trim :adres, :postcode, :woonplaats, :email, :naam, :telefoon,
:mobiel
downcase :email
empty_to_nil :telefoon, :mobiel
end

Regards,

-- Jean-François.

Jean-François wrote:

Hello Jeroen,

I often find myself using bits of code like this inside ActiveRecord,
perhaps it’s useful for others, or others can improve on it:

thanks to share this with us.

No problem :slight_smile:

def sanitize_input
trim :adres, :postcode, :woonplaats, :email, :naam, :telefoon, :mobiel
downcase :email
empty_to_nil :telefoon, :mobiel
end

Cool, it does look a little more straightforward like that, thanks!

Jeroen

On May 2, 2006, at 7:27 AM, Jeroen H. wrote:
[…]

downcase :email
[…]

pass in a list of fields of this object that will be lowercased

useful for accepting only unique emails

def downcase(fields)
fields.to_a.each {|f| self[f].downcase! }
end

Note that this is not safe to do in general: the local-part of an
email address must be treated as case sensitive [RFC 2821]. Although
it might not hurt you in practice, you risk interoperability with
systems that don’t ignore the case of mailbox names.


Rob L.
[email protected]

Jeroen H. wrote:

santize input before actual validation is called

def empty_to_nil(fields)
def downcase(fields)
fields.to_a.each {|f| self[f].downcase! }
end
##########

Slightly improved version:

before_validation :sanitize_input

private

santize input before actual validation is called

def sanitize_input
strip :address, :postcode, email, :phone
downcase :email
empty_to_nil :phone
end

pass in the fields whose values will be converted to nil

if the value is empty (this causes empty form elements to become nils)

you should only use these on objects that respond to empty? (it’s

really only meant for strings)
def empty_to_nil(*fields)
fields.each {|f| self[f] = nil if self[f].empty? unless self[f].nil?
}
end

pass in a list of fields whose values will be trimmed

def strip(*fields)
fields.each {|f| self[f].strip! unless self[f].nil? }
end

pass in a list of fields of this object that will be lowercased

useful for accepting only unique emails

def downcase(*fields)
fields.each {|f| self[f].downcase! unless self[f].nil? }
end

HTH,

Jeroen