How can I set default values in ActiveRecord?

Question

How can I set default value in ActiveRecord?

I see a post from Pratik that describes an ugly, complicated chunk of code: http://m.onkey.org/2007/7/24/how-to-set-default-values-in-your-model

class Item < ActiveRecord::Base  
  def initialize_with_defaults(attrs = nil, &block)
    initialize_without_defaults(attrs) do
      setter = lambda { |key, value| self.send("#{key.to_s}=", value) unless
        !attrs.nil? && attrs.keys.map(&:to_s).include?(key.to_s) }
      setter.call('scheduler_type', 'hotseat')
      yield self if block_given?
    end
  end
  alias_method_chain :initialize, :defaults
end

I have seen the following examples googling around:

  def initialize 
    super
    self.status = ACTIVE unless self.status
  end

and

  def after_initialize 
    return unless new_record?
    self.status = ACTIVE
  end

I've also seen people put it in their migration, but I'd rather see it defined in the model code.

Is there a canonical way to set default value for fields in ActiveRecord model?

Answer 1

The after_initialize callback pattern can be improved by simply doing the following

after_initialize :some_method_goes_here, :if => :new_record?

This has a non-trivial benefit if your init code needs to deal with associations, as the following code triggers a subtle n+1 if you read the initial record without including the associated.

class Account

  has_one :config
  after_initialize :init_config

  def init_config
    self.config ||= build_config
  end

end

Answer 2

This has been answered for a long time, but I need default values frequently and prefer not to put them in the database. I create a DefaultValues concern:

module DefaultValues
  extend ActiveSupport::Concern

  class_methods do
    def defaults(attr, to: nil, on: :initialize)
      method_name = "set_default_#{attr}"
      send "after_#{on}", method_name.to_sym

      define_method(method_name) do
        if send(attr)
          send(attr)
        else
          value = to.is_a?(Proc) ? to.call : to
          send("#{attr}=", value)
        end
      end

      private method_name
    end
  end
end

And then use it in my models like so:

class Widget < ApplicationRecord
  include DefaultValues

  defaults :category, to: 'uncategorized'
  defaults :token, to: -> { SecureRandom.uuid }
end

Answer 3

I strongly suggest using the "default_value_for" gem: https://github.com/FooBarWidget/default_value_for

There are some tricky scenarios that pretty much require overriding the initialize method, which that gem does.

Examples:

Your db default is NULL, your model/ruby-defined default is "some string", but you actually want to set the value to nil for whatever reason: MyModel.new(my_attr: nil)

Most solutions here will fail to set the value to nil, and will instead set it to the default.

OK, so instead of taking the ||= approach, you switch to my_attr_changed?...

BUT now imagine your db default is "some string", your model/ruby-defined default is "some other string", but under a certain scenario, you want to set the value to "some string" (the db default): MyModel.new(my_attr: 'some_string')

This will result in my_attr_changed? being false because the value matches the db default, which in turn will fire your ruby-defined default code and set the value to "some other string" -- again, not what you desired.

---

For those reasons I don't think this can properly be accomplished with just an after_initialize hook.

Again, I think the "default_value_for" gem is taking the right approach: https://github.com/FooBarWidget/default_value_for

Answer 4

In Rails 5+, you can use the attribute method within your models, eg.:

class Account < ApplicationRecord
  attribute :locale, :string, default: 'en'
end

Answer 5

The Phusion guys have some nice plugin for this.

Answer 6

An even better/cleaner potential way than the answers proposed is to overwrite the accessor, like this:

def status
  self['status'] || ACTIVE
end

See "Overwriting default accessors" in the ActiveRecord::Base documentation and more from StackOverflow on using self.