# A newbie question, if possible to help **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [May 28, 2006, 9:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-newbie-question-if-possible-to-help/61824 "2006-05-28T09:16:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![shai\_rosenfeld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d26b3c/32.png) [@shai\_rosenfeld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shai_rosenfeld)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 9:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-newbie-question-if-possible-to-help/61824/1 "2006-05-28T09:16:11Z")
i was wondering if anyone can help me form a very simple “if” statment in the controller… i did a usual scaffold for table ‘pages’, and everything is working out well, i did the main site ‘backbone’ and all, and everythings good…the thing is, now i need to make sure that the site-admin does not have the possiblity to destroy page 1 or page 2. so, i tried a couple things myself(added onto the ‘destroy’ action in the scaffold defualt) but it didn’t really work out for me…what am i doing wrong? is there a different way to solve this? ## --------regular -------- def destroy Page.find(params[:id]).destroy redirect\_to :action =\> ‘list’ end and this is my try -------------mytry--------- def destroy ``` if params[:id] == 1 flash[:notice] = 'you cannot destroy this page' redirect_to :action => 'list' else Page.find(params[:id]).destroy redirect_to :action => 'list' ``` end * * * why isn’t this working? any help will be greatly appreciated. thanks ahead of time, shai rosenfeld ---
**Author:** ![shai\_rosenfeld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d26b3c/32.png) [@shai\_rosenfeld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shai_rosenfeld)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 9:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-newbie-question-if-possible-to-help/61824/2 "2006-05-28T09:38:41Z")
On 5/28/06, shai rosenfeld [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > doing wrong? is there a different way to solve this? > > * * * > > why isn’t this working? > any help will be greatly appreciated. > thanks ahead of time, > > shai rosenfeld Looks like you forgot to put an “end” after the else clause. It should be: ``` def destroy if params[:id] == 1 flash[:notice] = 'you cannot destroy this page' redirect_to :action => 'list' else Page.find(params[:id]).destroy redirect_to :action => 'list' end ``` end ---
**Author:** ![shai\_rosenfeld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d26b3c/32.png) [@shai\_rosenfeld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shai_rosenfeld)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 9:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-newbie-question-if-possible-to-help/61824/3 "2006-05-28T09:58:08Z")
alder, thanks for the advice, but apperently (is that spelled correctly?) not enough . . . it seems that rails can identify params[:id] when it’s used within ``` "Page.find(params[:id]).destroy" ``` but when i do ``` "if params[:id]" ``` it doesn’t recognize the statement – could this be because my statement is incorrect (i.e, syntax) or what? how should i be writing this correctly? (the if statemnt for preventing someone to delete(=destroy) page 1/2)… anyone who can help, or has a clue, thanks again. shai ---
**Author:** ![shai\_rosenfeld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d26b3c/32.png) [@shai\_rosenfeld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shai_rosenfeld)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 10:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-newbie-question-if-possible-to-help/61824/4 "2006-05-28T10:15:25Z")
On 5/28/06, shai rosenfeld [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > it doesn’t recognize the statement – could this be because my statement > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). > > * * * > > Rails mailing list > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) Syntactically, what you wrote is fine. However, note that parameters coming from params are always _Strings_, not Integers. So trying to compare params[:id] in its raw string state to the integer 1 would always return false. Try if params[:id].to\_i == 1 intead. ---
**Author:** ![shai\_rosenfeld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d26b3c/32.png) [@shai\_rosenfeld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shai_rosenfeld)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 2:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-newbie-question-if-possible-to-help/61824/5 "2006-05-28T14:04:46Z")
FYI, a better implementation would use the callback before\_destroy. See pages 134 and 274 in AWDWR. On page 134 Dave T. covers this exact issue. Michael ---
**Author:** ![shai\_rosenfeld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d26b3c/32.png) [@shai\_rosenfeld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shai_rosenfeld)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 4:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-newbie-question-if-possible-to-help/61824/6 "2006-05-28T16:05:50Z")
On 5/28/06, shai rosenfeld [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > your help. > Rails mailing list > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) Bevakasha 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![shai\_rosenfeld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d26b3c/32.png) [@shai\_rosenfeld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shai_rosenfeld)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 10:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-newbie-question-if-possible-to-help/61824/7 "2006-05-28T10:28:33Z")
nothing else i can say but … thanks! not only am i a newbie in ruby, but i am kind of a newbie in forums too (as up until lately i thought it was better to break my head hours upon something, than give up and ‘ask for directions’) - until i found out it’s possible to get to the same location three hours earlier, with a lousy question mark and a handful of good people . . . so, thanks for your help. (what i ended up doing was params[:id] = ‘1’ (as apposed to 1) thanks again. shai ---
**Author:** ![shai\_rosenfeld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d26b3c/32.png) [@shai\_rosenfeld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shai_rosenfeld)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-newbie-question-if-possible-to-help/61824/8 "2006-05-28T17:03:12Z")
> Bevakasha 🙂 toda…where from? any email/other means of contact? yom tov, s ---
**Author:** ![shai\_rosenfeld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d26b3c/32.png) [@shai\_rosenfeld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shai_rosenfeld)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 5:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-newbie-question-if-possible-to-help/61824/9 "2006-05-28T17:34:44Z")
On 5/28/06, anonymous coward [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) Tel Aviv, Israel (camuvan 😉 You can send it here - removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid - I have a special filter for non-list incomings.