# ActiveRecord::Base#save! silently failing

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activerecord-base-save-silently-failing/126595>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [January 20, 2008, 1:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activerecord-base-save-silently-failing/126595 "2008-01-20T01:31:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ed\_Brannin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/e47774/32.png) [@Ed\_Brannin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Ed_Brannin)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 1:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activerecord-base-save-silently-failing/126595/1 "2008-01-20T01:31:19Z")

</div>

Hello,

One of my AR models is failing to save (using rails 2.0.2 and  
sqlite3). Both #save and #save return [] (sometimes other values),  
but A) nothing ever hits the database, and B) #save! doesn’t throw an  
error, even if it’s not a valid model. See the irb session below, as  
well as my Order class and migration.

Has this happened to anyone else?

The most unusual thing I’ve done on this project so far is use the  
decimal column type in the Order model. I’m going to change it to  
float and see if that works, then try my hand at ruby-debug if it  
doesn’t.

Many thanks,  
-Ed Brannin

> > t = Transaction.new  
> > =\> #\<Transaction id: nil, order\_id: nil, data: nil, txn\_id: nil,  
> > handshake: nil, created\_at: nil, updated\_at: nil\>
> 
> > t.valid?  
> > =\> false
> 
> > t.save  
> > =\> false
> 
> > t.save!  
> > ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid: Validation failed: Handshake can’t be  
> > blank, Txn can’t be blank, Data can’t be blank  
> > from /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.0.2/lib/  
> > active\_record/validations.rb:946:in `save_without_transactions!' from /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.0.2/lib/ active_record/transactions.rb:112:in`save!’  
> > from /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.0.2/lib/  
> > active\_record/connection\_adapters/abstract/database\_statements.rb:  
> > 66:in `transaction' from /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.0.2/lib/ active_record/transactions.rb:80:in`transaction’  
> > from /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.0.2/lib/  
> > active\_record/transactions.rb:100:in `transaction' from /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.0.2/lib/ active_record/transactions.rb:112:in`save!’  
> > from /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.0.2/lib/  
> > active\_record/transactions.rb:120:in `rollback_active_record_state!' from /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.0.2/lib/ active_record/transactions.rb:112:in`save!’  
> > from (irb):4
> 
> > o = Order.new  
> > =\> #\<Order id: nil, name: “”, email: “”, company: “”, gross: nil,  
> > shipping: nil, handling: nil, address: “”, status: “”, created\_at:  
> > nil, updated\_at: nil\>
> 
> > o.valid?  
> > =\> false
> 
> > o.save  
> > =\> []
> 
> > o.save!  
> > =\> []

class Order \< ActiveRecord::Base  
validates\_presence\_of :name, :email, :address

validates\_numericality\_of :gross, :shipping, :handling,  
:greater\_than\_or\_equal\_to  
=\> 0

has\_many :transaction

def total  
gross + shipping + handling  
end  
end

…and its migration:  
class CreateOrders \< ActiveRecord::Migration  
def self.up  
create\_table :orders do |t|  
t.string :name, :default =\> “”, :null =\> false  
t.string :email, :default =\> “”, :null =\> false  
t.string :company, :default =\> “”, :null =\> false  
t.decimal :gross, :null =\> false  
t.decimal :shipping, :null =\> false  
t.decimal :handling, :null =\> false  
t.text :address, :default =\> “”, :null =\> false  
t.string :status, :default =\> “”, :null =\> false

```
  t.timestamps
end

```

end

def self.down  
drop\_table :orders  
end  
end

Relevant gem versions:  
action\_profiler (1.0.0)  
actionmailer (2.0.2, 2.0.1, 1.3.6, 1.3.3, 1.3.2, 1.3.1, 1.2.5, 1.2.3,  
1.2.2, 1.2.1)  
actionpack (2.0.2, 2.0.1, 1.13.6, 1.13.3, 1.13.2, 1.13.1, 1.12.5,  
1.12.3, 1.12.2, 1.12.1)  
actionwebservice (1.2.6, 1.2.3, 1.2.2, 1.2.1, 1.1.6, 1.1.4, 1.1.3,  
1.1.2)  
activerecord (2.0.2, 2.0.1, 1.15.6, 1.15.3, 1.15.2, 1.15.1, 1.14.4,  
1.14.3, 1.14.2)  
activeresource (2.0.2, 2.0.1)  
activesupport (2.0.2, 2.0.1, 1.4.4, 1.4.2, 1.4.1, 1.4.0, 1.3.1)  
acts\_as\_versioned (0.2.3)  
json (1.1.2, 1.0.2, 0.4.3, 0.4.2)  
mongrel (1.1.3, 1.1.2, 1.0.1, 1.0, 0.3.14, 0.3.13.4, 0.3.13.3)  
mongrel\_cluster (1.0.5, 0.2.1, 0.2.0)  
rails (2.0.2, 2.0.1, 1.2.6, 1.2.3, 1.2.2, 1.2.1, 1.1.6, 1.1.4, 1.1.3,  
1.1.2)  
rails-app-installer (0.2.0, 0.1.5, 0.1.3)  
rails\_analyzer\_tools (1.4.0, 1.1.0)  
rspec (1.1.2, 1.1.1, 1.1.0, 1.0.5, 0.7.5.1, 0.7.5, 0.6.4, 0.6.3)  
rubygems-update (1.0.1, 0.9.5, 0.9.4)  
sqlite-ruby (2.2.3)  
sqlite3-ruby (1.2.1, 1.2.0, 1.1.0.1, 1.1.0)  
ZenTest (3.8.0, 3.7.2, 3.7.1, 3.6.1, 3.6.0)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ed\_Brannin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/e47774/32.png) [@Ed\_Brannin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Ed_Brannin)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 3:49am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activerecord-base-save-silently-failing/126595/2 "2008-01-20T03:49:57Z")

</div>

Update:

Not surprisingly, the decimal vs float thing was a silly pipe-dream.  
I then tried defining ALL the ActiveRecord callbacks to puts their  
names and ran my specs. The 4 validation-related ones fire when I  
call #valid?, but _none_ of them fired on #save.

I’m stepping through ActiveRecord’s #save! in rdebug now, but I don’t  
really expect to find my way through. Any help y’all can offer would  
be most appreciated.

Thank you,  
-Ed

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ed\_Brannin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/e47774/32.png) [@Ed\_Brannin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Ed_Brannin)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 1:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activerecord-base-save-silently-failing/126595/3 "2008-01-20T13:59:06Z")

</div>

On 20 Jan 2008, at 02:48, Ed Brannin wrote:

> be most appreciated.  
> I’ll guess that Order has\_one :transaction. This unfortunately is a  
> bad thing.  
> AR::Base already has a transaction method, which executes the supplied  
> block in a transaction.  
> Paraphrasing wildly, at the end of the day, some the save methods boil  
> down to

transaction do  
#do some saving, invoke callbacks etc…  
end

But on your order model, transaction is just an association accessor  
and so the saving never gets done.

Fred

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ed\_Brannin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/e47774/32.png) [@Ed\_Brannin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Ed_Brannin)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 2:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activerecord-base-save-silently-failing/126595/4 "2008-01-20T14:55:27Z")

</div>

On Jan 20, 7:57 am, Frederick C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> I’ll guess that Order has\_one :transaction. This unfortunately is a  
> bad thing.  
> AR::Base already has a transaction method, which executes the supplied  
> block in a transaction.

ack! I feel quite silly for not thinking of that.

Actually, it has\_many :transaction, so when I changed it  
to :transactions, it started working just fine.

Thank you!

-Ed