Interesting Things

• before_save and after_save may not perform as you expect!

Previously, returning false from before or after filters callbacks would halt the chain entirely. This is no longer the case, except with before_save and after_save — returning false in a before_save will stop the filter callback chain and prevent a save, returning false in an after_save will stop the filter chain silently, and NOT rollback the save. This can be troublesome if you have after_save filters callbacks you expect to execute, especially if you have conditional clauses in an after_save, as they can easily return a false value where you did not intend it.

Please see Brandon Keepers’ clarification regarding filters vs. callbacks below — thanks Brandon!

Ask for help

• Bootstrapping data into an existing system?

Using migrations for one-time data inserts can be problematic (for example, when changing seed data; additionally, it’s advisable to create a database from the schema.rb rather than migrations) , it can be useful to create a class that is responsible for inserting the seed data into the database. This class can be wrapped in a capistrano or rake task. The db-populate plugin is designed to aid in this task.

• Multiple Routes/One controller

It is possible to point multiple routes at a single controller, however, this situation may suggest a need for multiple controllers, possibly inheriting from a single base controller containing any shared logic. This prevents a excessive switching logic in controllers, which can help minimize the possibility of argument-related bugs.