# Saving Objects without Saving Objects

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/saving-objects-without-saving-objects/97553>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [July 7, 2006, 9:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/saving-objects-without-saving-objects/97553 "2006-07-07T21:12:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jfoxny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jfoxny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jfoxny)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2006, 9:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/saving-objects-without-saving-objects/97553/1 "2006-07-07T21:12:45Z")

</div>

I have a problem that I think is probably fairly common but I haven’t  
seem to be able to come up with the magic combination of search terms to  
find a solution (or it really isn’t that common). Here’s the deal…

Scenario: A system allows a user to enter in articles via a web-form.  
The system provides a preview function; not a live preview, but a  
preview on another page where they can see what the article will look  
like when posted. The system follow s the share-nothing approach.

Challenge: The article object, from the user’s perspective, is not saved  
until she clicks the SAVE button. If the user clicks the preview  
button, however, the article object needs to be stashed somewhere so  
that the preview page can pick it up. Then when the user returns to the  
edit page from the preview, the article object again needs to be  
retreived. How do you save the object without really saving it?

P.S. - Storing the object in the session is not an acceptable solution.

I’ve handled this case so far by saving the object, but with a status  
(an attribute of the object) of NEW. Then when the user ACTUALLY saves  
the object, I change the status to SAVED. This works, but is a bit  
cumbersome as all of the code that deals with objects like this needs to  
be aware of this status.

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jfoxny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jfoxny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jfoxny)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2006, 9:33pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/saving-objects-without-saving-objects/97553/2 "2006-07-07T21:33:02Z")

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Hi Jason,  
You could either store the object in the params hash, and have the form  
send it with a post request, or use the status method, which would allow  
for saving drafts, and keeping more data about the status. I would go  
with the status method, but you could send it in te params hash as well.  
Good luck!

Jason F. wrote:

> I have a problem that I think is probably fairly common but I haven’t  
> seem to be able to come up with the magic combination of search terms to  
> find a solution (or it really isn’t that common). Here’s the deal…
> 
> Scenario: A system allows a user to enter in articles via a web-form.  
> The system provides a preview function; not a live preview, but a  
> preview on another page where they can see what the article will look  
> like when posted. The system follow s the share-nothing approach.
> 
> Challenge: The article object, from the user’s perspective, is not saved  
> until she clicks the SAVE button. If the user clicks the preview  
> button, however, the article object needs to be stashed somewhere so  
> that the preview page can pick it up. Then when the user returns to the  
> edit page from the preview, the article object again needs to be  
> retreived. How do you save the object without really saving it?
> 
> P.S. - Storing the object in the session is not an acceptable solution.
> 
> I’ve handled this case so far by saving the object, but with a status  
> (an attribute of the object) of NEW. Then when the user ACTUALLY saves  
> the object, I change the status to SAVED. This works, but is a bit  
> cumbersome as all of the code that deals with objects like this needs to  
> be aware of this status.
> 
> Any help would be appreciated.
> 
> Regards.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jfoxny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jfoxny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jfoxny)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2006, 9:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/saving-objects-without-saving-objects/97553/3 "2006-07-07T21:47:09Z")

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Jason F. wrote:

> I have a problem that I think is probably fairly common but I haven’t  
> seem to be able to come up with the magic combination of search terms to  
> find a solution (or it really isn’t that common). Here’s the deal…
> 
> Scenario: A system allows a user to enter in articles via a web-form.  
> The system provides a preview function; not a live preview, but a  
> preview on another page where they can see what the article will look  
> like when posted. The system follow s the share-nothing approach.
> 
> Challenge: The article object, from the user’s perspective, is not saved  
> until she clicks the SAVE button. If the user clicks the preview  
> button, however, the article object needs to be stashed somewhere so  
> that the preview page can pick it up. Then when the user returns to the  
> edit page from the preview, the article object again needs to be  
> retreived. How do you save the object without really saving it?
> 
> P.S. - Storing the object in the session is not an acceptable solution.
> 
> I’ve handled this case so far by saving the object, but with a status  
> (an attribute of the object) of NEW. Then when the user ACTUALLY saves  
> the object, I change the status to SAVED. This works, but is a bit  
> cumbersome as all of the code that deals with objects like this needs to  
> be aware of this status.

You can construct the object and display it in the request that handles  
to form input, without saving. If the edit form is included on the  
preview page this will work fine, this is how rails scaffolding works.

def new  
@post = Post.new  
end

def create  
@post = Post.new(params[:post])  
end

If you want a slightly more permanent solution, you can use flash.  
Although it technically uses the session, it’s automatically purged one  
request after it’s set. This should allow your form to post to the  
preview page, then the user can click a link that takes them back to the  
edit form, and it will have all the proper data in the fields since it’s  
reading form the object in the flash instead.

def post\_form  
@post = flash[:post] || Post.new  
end

def preview  
@post = Post.new(params[:post])  
flash[:post] = @post  
end

Although with either of these solutions if the user goes anywhere else  
from the preview page the data will be lost. If you want any long term  
access to “unsaved” records then they have to be saved SOMEWHERE. If  
this is the case, you current solution is probably best with saving the  
record anyway and then marking it as saved later.

If you only need to keep the data around for 1 intermediate request  
(i.e. to the preview page and back) then the flash should work fine.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jfoxny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jfoxny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jfoxny)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/saving-objects-without-saving-objects/97553/4 "2006-07-08T21:45:57Z")

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On 7/7/06, Alex W. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> > Challenge: The article object, from the user’s perspective, is not saved  
> > the object, I change the status to SAVED. This works, but is a bit  
> > end  
> > reading form the object in the flash instead.  
> > Although with either of these solutions if the user goes anywhere else  
> > from the preview page the data will be lost. If you want any long term  
> > access to “unsaved” records then they have to be saved SOMEWHERE. If  
> > this is the case, you current solution is probably best with saving the  
> > record anyway and then marking it as saved later.
> 
> If you only need to keep the data around for 1 intermediate request  
> (i.e. to the preview page and back) then the flash should work fine.

Another solution that we use is to have a totally seperate table with  
draft articles, there’s never a worry that the drafts will get out  
unless they’re copied over and you don’t have to worry about the  
overhead of a conditional on each query. With MySQL 5 this is less of  
a problem due to the muuuuuch improved range optimizations though so  
having an attribute seems like a decent, easy to understand approach.

Cheers,  
Chuck V.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jfoxny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jfoxny](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jfoxny)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 1:49am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/saving-objects-without-saving-objects/97553/5 "2006-07-09T01:49:07Z")

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Thanks for all the great feedback!

I do need to keep the object around in my real problem for more than one  
request. The actual object is built up over a series of steps (in  
wizard fashion). The preview feature is also available at any step.

So, it sounds like the approach I’m taking is not way afield. I like  
Chuck’s idea of having separate tables for the “draft” objects. My only  
concern is that in my particular problem space I have several of these  
types of objects, so I’d end up with a bunch of extra tables; not the  
worst thing in the world, however.

There is also the question of cleaning up “drafts” that the user never  
revisits. In my application, introducing the concept of a “draft” in  
the UI to the user wouldn’t make sense for these types of objects (the  
objects are not really articles). I guess I could just add the clean-up  
of drafts to the task that cleans up expired sessions.

Thanks again for the feedback.

Regards