How Do I Add A Virtual Attribute To The Attributes Hash in Rails 4

Question

I want to add a virtual attribute to an activerecord object. It's straightforward to define the getter/setter but I want my attribute to appear in the attributes hash (and attribute_names etc..). Since this is rails 4 I can't use attr_accessible.

What more do I need to add to this code so I can call reference.attributes and have the value of authors show up there?

class Reference < ActiveRecord::Base

  def authors
    self.author_names.to_a.join(' and ')
  end

  def authors=(val)
    self.author_names.destroy
    val.strip.split(/(?:[ ]and[ ])|\;/).each {|entry|
     self.author_names << AuthorName.new(name: entry)
    }
  end
end

Under what context do you want "the attribute to appear"? `attr_accessor` attributes can be used with `form_for` and mass-assigned in `.update()`. — Lanny Bose, Oct 23 '15 at 02:09

Austio · Answer 1 · 2015-10-23T15:22:53.223

5

def attributes
  super.merge({'authors' => authors})
end

edited Oct 23 '15 at 15:22

answered Oct 23 '15 at 02:10

Austio

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How Do I Add A Virtual Attribute To The Attributes Hash in Rails 4

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