Friendly_id: In a model how to slug a second column value when value in first column is absent

Question

I am using Ruby 2.1.1 and Rails 4.0.4.

In my model I have two columns A & B.

How do I slug value of B when value in column A is absent?

I want to keep column A value primarily. It is only when the value in column A is absent.

Richard Peck · Answer 1 · 2014-04-01T08:25:22.233

1

Perhaps you could try using an instance method (as per this documentation):

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  friendly_id :default_value
  def default_value
    column_a || column_b
  end
end

edited Apr 01 '14 at 08:25

answered Mar 30 '14 at 12:21

Richard Peck

1

But how this method choose column b when column a field is absent? Should it be something like, if column_a.present? :first_name else :id-last_name end – Subrat Rout Mar 30 '14 at 19:52
If the value of column A is absent then I must use the value of column B for the slug. – Subrat Rout Apr 01 '14 at 08:24
Okay let me refactor my answer for you – Richard Peck Apr 01 '14 at 08:25
There you got buddy - I think that's what you need – Richard Peck Apr 01 '14 at 08:25
Can you explain me a bit why there is a Time.now.to_i is there? – Subrat Rout Apr 01 '14 at 09:07
It is not working. When trying to save old record by Model.find_each(&:save) it is just loading few ones from column A but not any from column B. – Subrat Rout Apr 01 '14 at 16:54

1 Answers1