values are not updating in rails 3

Question

I am tried to update attribute normally but it is not updating.

Here is my customer model

    class Customer < ActiveRecord::Base
      attr_accessible :name, :phone_number, :email
      attr_accessible :first_name
      attr_accessible :last_name

      before_validation :parse_name
      def name
         "#{first_name} #{last_name}".strip
      end

  private

  def parse_name
    if attributes['name'].present?
      self.first_name, self.last_name = attributes['name'].strip.split(' ', 2)
    end
  end
end

I tried to update first_name and last_name but it is not updating but if I tried to update email it is updating fine

Here is my rails console trace Updating email

2.1.0dev :004 > a = Customer.find(5)
  Customer Load (0.2ms)  SELECT `customers`.* FROM `customers` WHERE `customers`.`id` = 5 LIMIT 1
 => #<Customer id: 5, name: "First Last", phone_number: "1234567890", created_at: "2014-09-15 12:48:30", updated_at: "2014-09-15 14:32:17", first_name: "Fir
2.1.0dev :008 > a = Customer.find(5)
  Customer Load (0.1ms)  SELECT `customers`.* FROM `customers` WHERE `customers`.`id` = 5 LIMIT 1
 => #<Customer id: 5, name: "First Last", phone_number: "1234567890", created_at: "2014-09-15 12:48:30", updated_at: "2014-09-15 14:32:17", first_name: "Fir
st", last_name: "Last", email: "shri@mail.com"> 
2.1.0dev :009 > a.email = "Test@test.com"
 => "Test@test.com" 
2.1.0dev :010 > a.save
   (0.2ms)  BEGIN
  Customer Exists (0.2ms)  SELECT 1 AS one FROM `customers` WHERE (`customers`.`phone_number` = BINARY '1234567890' AND `customers`.`id` != 5) LIMIT 1
   (0.4ms)  UPDATE `customers` SET `email` = 'Test@test.com', `updated_at` = '2014-09-15 20:38:31' WHERE `customers`.`id` = 5
   (104.9ms)  COMMIT
 => true 
2.1.0dev :011 > a
 => #<Customer id: 5, name: "First Last", phone_number: "1234567890", created_at: "2014-09-15 12:48:30", updated_at: "2014-09-15 20:38:31", first_name: "Fir
st", last_name: "Last", email: "Test@test.com"> 

But for updating first_name and last_name is not working

updating last_name

2.1.0dev :012 > a.last_name = "last_name"
 => "last_name" 
2.1.0dev :013 > a.save
   (0.2ms)  BEGIN
  Customer Exists (0.7ms)  SELECT 1 AS one FROM `customers` WHERE (`customers`.`phone_number` = BINARY '1234567890' AND `customers`.`id` != 5) LIMIT 1
   (0.2ms)  COMMIT
 => true 
2.1.0dev :014 > a.save!
   (0.2ms)  BEGIN
  Customer Exists (0.2ms)  SELECT 1 AS one FROM `customers` WHERE (`customers`.`phone_number` = BINARY '1234567890' AND `customers`.`id` != 5) LIMIT 1
   (0.1ms)  COMMIT
 => true 
2.1.0dev :015 > a
 => #<Customer id: 5, name: "First Last", phone_number: "1234567890", created_at: "2014-09-15 12:48:30", updated_at: "2014-09-15 20:38:31", first_name: "Fir
st", last_name: "Last", email: "Test@test.com"> 

Using update attributes

2.1.0dev :016 > a.update_attributes(:first_name => "test_name", :last_name => "test_name")
   (0.2ms)  BEGIN
  Customer Exists (0.2ms)  SELECT 1 AS one FROM `customers` WHERE (`customers`.`phone_number` = BINARY '1234567890' AND `customers`.`id` != 5) LIMIT 1
   (0.2ms)  COMMIT
 => true 
2.1.0dev :017 > a
 => #<Customer id: 5, name: "First Last", phone_number: "1234567890", created_at: "2014-09-15 12:48:30", updated_at: "2014-09-15 20:38:31", first_name: "Fir
st", last_name: "Last", email: "Test@test.com"> 

I tried to resolve it but it is not working. Can any please tell me what I am missing. I am using rails 3.2.14 and rails 2.1.0

Answer 1

Your before_validation is overwriting the value you want to set. I would remove the parse name method all together and have the #name method simply be a calculated value based on first_name and last_name e.g.

class Customer < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :phone_number, :email, :first_name, :last_name
  def name
     "#{first_name} #{last_name}".strip
  end
end

If you really must have #name= I would do it as

def name=(name_string)
   self.first_name, self.last_name = name_string.strip.split(' ', 2)
end

You will have to save for these values to hold. You could also do something like.

def update_name(name_string)
  update_attributes(Hash[[:first_name,:last_name].zip(name_string.strip.split(' ', 2))])
end

Which will run save with and return true or false based on validity

Answer 2

You have a before_validation method where first and last name are set depending on name. Your record already has a name, so it splits this name and extract first and last name.