Generic methods (like find_by_xxx)

Hello
I need to load external data from files coming from different sources so
I need to standardize a lot. What I want to do (after a proper file
processing) would be something like:

person.name = format_name(array[0])
person.last_name = format_last_name(array[1])
person.country = format_country(array[2])
person.email = format_email(array[3])
person.website = format_website(array[4])

The thing is what most of those format_xxx methods
(name,last_name,country,…) do is just capitalize the input so I would
like to have a default method that catches all the format_xxx calls,
except those that need some special formatting -like email or website-
and that will have an ad-hoc -application level- format method.

I’m thinking in adding some code to method_missing in base.rb. Is this a
good idea? If so, how could it be? Or is there a better way to do it?

thanks

PD. IT’s my first post here… great community.

On 1/26/07, Fernando P. [email protected] wrote:

person.website = format_website(array[4])
thanks

PD. IT’s my first post here… great community.


Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Fernando,

I would look at the callbacks in ActiveRecord. In particular I can
see using a before_validation callback to clean the attributes as
needed.

http://caboo.se/doc/classes/ActiveRecord/Callbacks.html

Hope this helps.


Zack C.
http://depixelate.com