Operation on data for model

Rails
1

Hi
First let me mention that i am new to rails.
In my application there is a form for entering product details for
bidding. I have a view and all the data is entered into a form.
In the database there is a unique_id which is generated for each
product(this is for internal use within the company). The unique id is
generated using data from 2 fields and another generated number. all 3
needs to be concatenated.
My questions:

  1. where is the best place to perform the operation.
    I assume it is in the controller
  2. How do i do it. How do I take the form data and concatenate all the
    values, so that the unique id is inserted into the database.
2

you can handle this all in the model

since i don’t know your attribute names, i’ll just use simple ones,
foo, bar and the unique id attribute will be unique_ident

class Model < AR::Base

before_create :generate_unique_ident

def generate_unique_ident
unique_ident = foo + bar + self.generate_some_number
end

private
def self.generate_some_number
…
end

validates_presence_of :foo
validates_presence_of :bar
end

then just save your model as usual

3

Is this best done in model than in controller?

4

Is this best done in model than in controller?
Is it possible to retrieve some data from the db according to a field?

Eg: let us assume foo, bar and unique_ident as above.
now bar contains a primary key of a table which contains actual data.
foo = 137874
bar = 1
unique_ident = ss137874, because according to table
bar_table
id value
1 ss
2 dd

now can a retrieve the value according to the value of bar which is
given in the view?

5

ok. let me start from the begining.
3 fields of concern here are product_code, product_category,
unique_ident.
In the view product_category is selected through a dropdown. Its values
are integer, which is id of the category table.
given below is sample values of category table
categories
id category category_code
1 electronics el
2 cars ca

now, sample values input by the user
product_code : 333
product_category : 2

in this case the unique_ident should be product_code + the category_code
of the corresponding product_category
i.e: ca333

I hope i am clear this time

6

sorry, you’ve confused me.

foo and bar where my mock columns on your model. i don’t understand
where this bar table is coming from.

perhaps you need to provide more info on your situtation.

7

well, what you could do in this case is just make it a ‘psuedo
attribute’ and you don’t even have to store it in the database

class Product

def unique_ident
category.category_code + product_code
end
end

so in this example say you have

products
id: 1
product_code: 333
category_id: 2

categories
id: 2
category: cars
category_code: ca

p = Product.find(1)
p.unique_ident # => “ca333”