I need to send a request and accept like instagram follow and accept in rails

Question

I have created an web app specified in Michael Hartl rails tutorial. In that the followers are directly follow any person. I need to upgrade it based on request and accept. Any links to solution or steps to the solution preferred.

Answer 1

You can generate a model called Request, where you'll handle the connection between the users and also gives you control which user is sending the request and who's receiving the request. You can have fields like accepted_at and declined_at.

For example, the User A can send a follow request to User B. Based if the User B accepted the request, you can send a notification to User A, and make a connection between User A and User B.

In the model you can have something like:

class Request < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :sender, class_name: "User", foreign_key: "sender_id" (or some other name like follower)
  belongs_to :sending, class_name: "User", foreign_key: "sending_id" (or some other name like following)
end

In your form, you can have something like this:

<%= form_with model: @request, method: :put, local: true do |form| %>
  <%= form.hidden_field :accepted_at, value: Time.now, type: "hidden" %>
  <%= form.submit "Accept" %>
<% end %>

<%= form_with model: @request, method: :put, local: true do |form| %>
  <%= form.hidden_field :declined_at, value: Time.now, type: "hidden" %>
  <%= form.submit "Decline" %>
<% end %>

In the controller, you can have

def create
  @request = Request.new(request_params)

  if @request.save
      flash[:notice] = "Follow invitation sent!"
      redirect_to followers_path
  else
     flash[:alert] = "Errors. Couldn't send follow request"
     render view_name
  end
end

def update
  @request = Request.find(params[:id])

  @request.assign_attributes(request_params)

  if @request.accepted_at_changed?
   [here make the connection between users]
   flash[:notice] = "You've accepted the follow request"
  end

  if @request.declined_at_changed?
   [do nothing, just update the declined_at field]
   flash[:notice] = "You've declined the follow request"
  end

  if @request.save
   redirect_to followers_path
  else
   redirect_to root_path, alert: 'Not updated follow request!'
  end
end

private

def request_params
  params.require(:request).permit(:sender_id, :sending_id, :accepted_at, :declined_at)
end

I think this will give you a raw idea of how to do it. If you have some questions, I'll be glad to help.

Happy Coding.