Beginner: helper vs model

Rails
1

Just learning the framework. I apologize if this is in the worng forum.
I looked around for something like “Beginner’s Questions” but didn’t see
it.

I’m building a simple application which will let players register for an
event.

So, I’ve generated a player_admin controller and pointed it to my
players table. Worked great, I’m off and running.

After learning about hashing the password, I decided I might like to add
a convenience method to the Player (attached) which would give fullname.
My ultimate goal of this is to list the players, obviously.

In the player_admin/show view, I tried <%= @player.fullname %>, got an
error which said fullname not defined. I also just dumped the player
object using debug(), which didn’t show fullname as an attribute.

I also tried it as a no-param method [i.e., fullname() ], without luck.

After puzzling a while, I came across the notion of helpers, and decided
to try the method in the player_admin_helper:

def fullname
@player.first_name + " " + @player.last_name
end

Worked like a charm. I kind of understand, it’s because the show view
was invoked by the player_admin controller, so he has access to the
player_admin_helper, but that won’t help me when I’m off in some other
part of the application.

I don’t understand where I went wrong when just trying to get a similar
method directly in the player object. Is there something funadmentally
wrong with how I’m thinking about Ruby objects, that in the Player model
wasn’t really an appropriate place to try that?

Thank you.

2

On Nov 28, 2008, at 1:51 PM, Scott P. wrote:

So, I’ve generated a player_admin controller and pointed it to my
object using debug(), which didn’t show fullname as an attribute.
end
You really want to have this in your Player model. It will look
almost the same:

class Player
def fullname
self.first_name + " " + self.last_name
end
end

or perhaps:

class Player
def fullname
“#{self.first_name} #{self.last_name}”
end
end

funadmentally
wrong with how I’m thinking about Ruby objects, that in the Player
model
wasn’t really an appropriate place to try that?

Thank you.

How did the method look when you tried to define it within your Player
model? If you still tried to refer to @player rather than self, that
may be your mental hurdle. You’re defining a new attribute of a
model. The rest of the system shouldn’t care if the storage behind
the model changes to hold the fullname and the other methods become:

class Player
def first_name
self.fullname.split(’ ‘).first
end
def last_name
self.fullname.split(’ ').last
end
end

(NOTE: I’m not suggesting that this should happen, but only that the
rest of the application can continue to reference @player.first_name,
@player.last_name, or @player.fullname without having to know what
really sits behind the model.)

-Rob

Rob B. http://agileconsultingllc.com
[email protected]

3

Rob B. wrote:

On Nov 28, 2008, at 1:51 PM, Scott P. wrote:

So, I’ve generated a player_admin controller and pointed it to my
object using debug(), which didn’t show fullname as an attribute.
end
You really want to have this in your Player model. It will look
almost the same:

class Player
def fullname
self.first_name + " " + self.last_name
end
end

or perhaps:

class Player
def fullname
“#{self.first_name} #{self.last_name}”
end
end

Absolutely right. I want a single place which defines how I build
“fullname”, so when I add title, middle name, whatever, it just works
everywhere I display.

funadmentally
wrong with how I’m thinking about Ruby objects, that in the Player
model
wasn’t really an appropriate place to try that?

Thank you.

How did the method look when you tried to define it within your Player
model? If you still tried to refer to @player rather than self, that
may be your mental hurdle. You’re defining a new attribute of a
model. The rest of the system shouldn’t care if the storage behind
the model changes to hold the fullname and the other methods become:

class Player
def first_name
self.fullname.split(’ ‘).first
end
def last_name
self.fullname.split(’ ').last
end
end

(NOTE: I’m not suggesting that this should happen, but only that the
rest of the application can continue to reference @player.first_name,
@player.last_name, or @player.fullname without having to know what
really sits behind the model.)

-Rob

Rob B. http://agileconsultingllc.com
[email protected]

Thanks a million for the response. Not sure what I did yesterday. I’m
pretty sure I wasn’t referring to “@player”, as I was in the Player
model object. Some foolish typo, I imagine. Glad to hear that I had
the right idea though.