Rails strong parameters - accepting the virtual attribute

Question

I have ActiveRecord model with persisted name attribute and the virtual attribute.

class MyModel < ActiveRecord::Base
 validates :name, length: { minimum: 1 }, presence: true

 def virtual_attr=(value)
  # set something
 end

 def virtual_attr
  # get something
 end
end

In my controller I am specifying strong parameters:

  def my_model_params
    params.permit(:name, :virtual_attr)
  end

When I am trying to create/update my model, my_model_params only contains a name, whilst I know that params[:virtual_attr] has the value that I passed to the controller. It seems like it is just getting filtered out. What am I doing wrong?

can you please post what params you are getting on console complete params hash — Deepak Mahakale, Jul 26 '16 at 06:30
@Deepak here is params hash: `{"name"=>"New", "virtual_attr"=>{"enable"=>"false", "start"=>"false"}, "controller"=>"my_model", "action"=>"create"}`. It's all there — alexs333, Jul 26 '16 at 06:38

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 26 '16 at 06:47

According to these params

{"name"=>"New", "virtual_attr"=>{"enable"=>"false", "start"=>"false"}, "controller"=>"my_model", "action"=>"create"}

You need to change strong params to:

def my_model_params
  params.permit(:name, virtual_attr: [:enable, :start])
end

Rails strong parameters - accepting the virtual attribute

1 Answers1