How do I hide from a user the ability to perform an action on a resource after a period of time in Rails 4?

Question

For my projects table I have a column, state, which take string values: "open", "in production", "pending approval" and "completed". The actions that trigger changes between these states are messages that go to and from users about the projects or actions associated to messages. When the object, project, goes from "open" to "in production", in the users inbox a user has a button appearing on the conversation associated with the project that reads, "Drop Project." Moreover, I can wire up the functionality as well. Clicking this button will disassociate you with the project.

My question: how can I have this button hide itself or disappear after 5 days of the project's state, having gone from "open" to "in production"? In other words, I want the user to have the opportunity to disassociates his self from the project within a certain time limit. After that, he is stuck with the project and is encouraged to finish it.

Also, how would I test this with rspec? Is this strictly with an integration test, or can I test it with a unit test too?

I am aware of this SO post (Rails 3 Check if attribute changed), but it has not helped me figure out the solution to my problem. However, I feel like it could serve as support.

Here is my db schema and models:

ActiveRecord::Schema.define(version: 20140514191454) do

  create_table "conversations", force: true do |t|
    t.datetime "created_at"
    t.datetime "updated_at"
    t.integer  "user_id"
  end

  create_table "organizations", force: true do |t|
    t.string   "name"
    t.datetime "ruling_year"
    t.text     "mission_statement"
    t.string   "guidestar_membership"
    t.string   "ein"
    t.string   "street1"
    t.string   "street2"
    t.string   "city"
    t.integer  "state_id"
    t.string   "zip"
    t.integer  "ntee_major_category_id"
    t.string   "funding_method"
    t.integer  "user_id"
    t.string   "cause"
  end

  create_table "private_messages", force: true do |t|
    t.integer  "sender_id"
    t.integer  "recipient_id"
    t.string   "subject"
    t.text     "body"
    t.datetime "created_at"
    t.datetime "updated_at"
    t.integer  "project_id"
    t.integer  "conversation_id"
  end

  create_table "project_users", force: true do |t|
    t.integer  "user_id"
    t.integer  "project_id"
    t.datetime "created_at"
    t.datetime "updated_at"
  end

  create_table "projects", force: true do |t|
    t.string   "title"
    t.text     "description"
    t.string   "skills"
    t.string   "causes"
    t.datetime "deadline"
    t.datetime "created_at"
    t.datetime "updated_at"
    t.integer  "user_id"
    t.integer  "organization_id"
    t.integer  "estimated_hours"
    t.string   "state"
  end

  create_table "user_conversations", force: true do |t|
    t.integer  "user_id"
    t.integer  "conversation_id"
    t.datetime "created_at"
    t.datetime "updated_at"
  end

  create_table "users", force: true do |t|
    t.integer  "organization_id"
    t.string   "first_name"
    t.string   "last_name"
    t.string   "email"
    t.string   "interests"
    t.string   "skills"
    t.string   "street1"
    t.string   "street2"
    t.string   "city"
    t.integer  "state_id"
    t.integer  "phone_number"
    t.string   "zip"
    t.boolean  "organization_administrator"
    t.boolean  "organization_staff"
    t.boolean  "volunteer"
    t.datetime "created_at"
    t.datetime "updated_at"
    t.string   "password_digest"
    t.string   "position"
    t.integer  "project_id"
    t.string   "time_zone"
  end

end

Conversation

class Conversation < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :private_messages, -> {order('created_at ASC')}

  def sender_user_name_of_recent_message
    message = self.private_messages.last
    user = message.sender_id
    name = User.find_by(id: user)
    "#{name.first_name} #{name.last_name}"
  end

  def the_id_of_sender
    message = self.private_messages.last
    user = message.sender_id
    name = User.find_by(id: user)
    name.id
  end

  def private_message_subject
    message = self.private_messages.last
    message_subject = message.subject
  end

  def private_message_body
    message = self.private_messages.last
    message_body = message.body
  end

  def join_request
    message = self.private_messages.first
    project = Project.find_by(id: message.project_id)
    if project
      project.state == "open"
    end
  end

  def project_complete_request
    message = self.private_messages.first
    project = Project.find_by(id: message.project_id)
    if project
      project.state == "pending approval"
    end
  end

  def opportunity_drop_project
    message = self.private_messages.first
    project = Project.find_by(id: message.project_id)
    if project
      project.state == "in production"
    end
  end
end

User

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_secure_password validations: false
  belongs_to :organization
  belongs_to :project
  has_many :project_users
  has_many :projects, through: :project_users
  has_many :sent_messages, class_name: 'PrivateMessage', foreign_key: 'sender_id'
  has_many :received_messages, -> {order('created_at DESC')}, class_name: 'PrivateMessage', foreign_key: 'recipient_id'
  has_many :conversations

  def private_messages
    messages = self.sent_messages + self.received_messages
    messages.sort!
  end

  def user_conversations
    collection = self.received_messages.select(:conversation_id).distinct
    all_conversations = collection.map do |member|
      convo_id = member.conversation_id
      Conversation.find_by(id: convo_id)
    end  
    all_conversations.sort
  end

  def organization_name
    organization.name
  end
end

Organization

class Organization < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :organization_administrator, foreign_key: 'user_id', class_name: 'User'  
  has_many :projects
  has_many :users
end

PrivateMessage

class PrivateMessage < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :recipient, foreign_key: 'recipient_id', class_name: 'User'
  belongs_to :sender, foreign_key: 'sender_id', class_name: 'User'
  belongs_to :conversation

  validates_presence_of :subject, :body
end

Project

class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :organization
  has_many :project_users
  has_many :users, through: :project_users

  def project_admin
    organization.organization_administrator
    User.find(organization.organization_administrator.id)
  end

  def open
    self.state == "open"
  end
end

ProjectUser

class ProjectUser < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user
  belongs_to :project
end

Christian · Answer 1 · 2014-05-24T18:27:28.193

1

I don't think there is a built-in Rails way to do this. ActiveModel::Dirty won't work because it only tells you if an object attribute has been changed in memory, once the object is saved to the DB it isn't dirty anymore. I think you'll just have to create a timestamp companion column for state and reset that value to the current time every time you change state. Then you'd just check against the time difference between now and the state_changed attribute.

You can do this by assigning Time.now to the state_changed attribute every time you assign a new state. Or, alternately, you could use a before_save callback on the project object. Use AM::Dirty to check if project.state has been changed, and set the state_changed attribute to Time.now if it has been. That way would be more DRY.

And then in the code for the actions you want time dependent you'd wrap them in a conditional like if project.state == "in production" && project.state_changed < 5.days.ago

And you'd also create a helper for your views that made the same calculation and only show the button if it is true.

edited May 24 '14 at 18:27

answered May 21 '14 at 17:30

Christian

37
3

clarification with regards to the typo you mention: The join_request method is showing conversations if a conversation's state is equal to 'open'. If it is not, then the conversation will not show itself as a join request. So if project has a value, then the project's state is equal to 'open'. if project's state == 'open' is false, then the object wont return the object because it is not in an open state – robskrob May 23 '14 at 17:23
Would you like to see the repo? – robskrob May 23 '14 at 17:24
Ok, got it. As a general suggestion I would make that explicit in the code by adding the return to the if clause. Just so someone else reading it doesn't have to figure that out. I think my general suggestion is still valid, unless their is something I don't understand about how you're managing the state attribute? But no matter how you're managing it, the callback method should give you what you need to create the time and state dependent behaviour you're looking for. – Christian May 24 '14 at 18:31
If you could just post the code where project state changes that would be helpful. – Christian May 24 '14 at 18:41

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 10 '14 at 21:10

I was missing some large objects here. A user has many projects through volunteer applications and a user has many projects through contracts.

Seeing as that accepting a user's solicitation on a project occurs in the user's inbox which contains an array of conversations that have a foreign key, contract_id, I implemented the following method in the Conversation model:

  def with_opportunity_to_drop_job
    contract = Contract.find(self.contract_id)
    contract.active && contract.work_submitted == false && contract.created_at > 5.days.ago
  end

If the creation date is more than 5 days ago, the button disappears -- luckily I have tests that validate this so I do not need to wait around for 5 days :-)

How do I hide from a user the ability to perform an action on a resource after a period of time in Rails 4?

2 Answers2