Rails 3.1 - Saving Multiple Models with Dates - mysql

Question

I have a nested form set up that will allow me to create up to 7 "Schedule" instances at one time. Each instance will allow a user to assign a schedule_start_time(datetime), schedule_end_time(datetime), and notes(String) field value. When I submit the form with a few of these completed, the parameters array looks exactly as I would expect:
{"utf8"=>"✓",
"authenticity_token"=>"HEoylzovRgr7BCZH47iNRPfizDHeVFMLTEmIiNeudcw=",
"workout"=>{"id"=>"2",
"schedules_attributes"=>{
"0"=>{"scheduled_start_time"=>"06/01/2011",
"scheduled_end_time"=>"06/02/2011",
"notes"=>"Notes 1"},
"1"=>{"scheduled_start_time"=>"",
"scheduled_end_time"=>"",
"notes"=>""},
"2"=>{"scheduled_start_time"=>"06/03/2011",
"scheduled_end_time"=>"06/04/2011",
"notes"=>"Notes 2"},
"3"=>{"scheduled_start_time"=>"",
"scheduled_end_time"=>"",
"notes"=>""},
"4"=>{"scheduled_start_time"=>"06/16/2011",
"scheduled_end_time"=>"06/30/2011",
"notes"=>"Notes 3"},
"5"=>{"scheduled_start_time"=>"",
"scheduled_end_time"=>"",
"notes"=>""},
"6"=>{"scheduled_start_time"=>"",
"scheduled_end_time"=>"",
"notes"=>""}}}, "commit"=>"Submit"}
In the controller, I filter those "schedules" with a blank start_date. My params list then looks like this:
{"utf8"=>"✓",
"authenticity_token"=>"HEoylzovRgr7BCZH47iNRPfizDHeVFMLTEmIiNeudcw=",
"workout"=>{"id"=>"2",
"schedules_attributes"=>{
"0"=>{"scheduled_start_time"=>"06/01/2011",
"scheduled_end_time"=>"06/02/2011",
"notes"=>"Notes 1"},
"2"=>{"scheduled_start_time"=>"06/03/2011",
"scheduled_end_time"=>"06/04/2011",
"notes"=>"Notes 2"},
"4"=>{"scheduled_start_time"=>"06/16/2011",
"scheduled_end_time"=>"06/30/2011",
"notes"=>"Notes 3"}}},
"commit"=>"Submit",
"action"=>"create",
"controller"=>"schedules"}
The SQL that gets generaated is not what I would expect however:
(0.1ms) BEGIN WARNING: Can't
mass-assign protected attributes: id
SQL (0.2ms) INSERT INTO schedules
(created_at, notes,
scheduled_end_time,
scheduled_start_time, updated_at,
workout_id) VALUES ('2011-06-29
03:23:45', 'Notes 1', '2011-02-06
00:00:00', '2011-01-06 00:00:00',
'2011-06-29 03:23:45', 2)
SQL
(0.1ms) INSERT INTO schedules
(created_at, notes,
scheduled_end_time,
scheduled_start_time, updated_at,
workout_id) VALUES ('2011-06-29
03:23:45', 'Notes 2', '2011-04-06
00:00:00', '2011-03-06 00:00:00',
'2011-06-29 03:23:45', 2)
SQL
(0.2ms) INSERT INTO schedules
(created_at, notes,
scheduled_end_time,
scheduled_start_time, updated_at,
workout_id) VALUES ('2011-06-29
03:23:45', 'Notes 3', NULL, NULL,
'2011-06-29 03:23:45', 2) (0.5ms)
COMMIT
Some of the valid date values are in the params array, but are being filtered out before the SQL commits.
Here is the controller code:
def create
#workout = Workout.find(params[:workout][:id])
7.times do |count|
#schedule = params[:workout][:schedules_attributes]["#{count}"]
if (#schedule[:scheduled_start_time].blank?)
params[:workout][:schedules_attributes].delete count.to_s.to_sym
end
end
if #workout.update_attributes(params[:workout])
redirect_to schedules_url, :notice => "Successfully updated schedule."
else
render :action => 'new'
end
end
And the Workout Model
class Workout < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :team, :class_name => "Team", :foreign_key => "team_id"
has_many :exercise_instances, :dependent => :destroy
validates :name,
:presence => true
has_many :schedules, :dependent => :destroy
accepts_nested_attributes_for :schedules
end
And the Schedule Model
class Schedule < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :workout_id, :scheduled_start_time, :scheduled_end_time, :notes
belongs_to :workout
end
Any direction would be welcome. I'm suspecting caching at some level, but I'm just not sure where to start looking. Thanks!

Answer 1

I think you are reinventing the wheel here and it's the source of the problem. Try the following:
class Workout < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :schedules, :dependent => :delete_all
accepts_nested_attributes_for :schedules, :allow_destroy => true, :reject_if => proc { |schedule| schedule[:scheduled_start_time].blank? }
end
You will still need to restrict the number of schedules to 7. I would recommend checking out existing solutions for this behavior; there are a lot of solid patterns on this already.

Answer 2

Personally I would do something like
params[:workout][:schedules_attributes].each do |sched|
#workout.schedules << #workout.schedules.build(sched) if sched[:scheduled_start_time].present?
end
if #workout.save # etc
And not use nested_attributes_for. This will guarantee that you will only get what was sent.
I've found with nested_attributes that it's often best to delete and recreate on edit every time as well, which may or may not be what you want.
I'm sure others with better nested_attributes 'fu' than me may have better solutions.