before_action Not Running Before Edit Action

Question

I'd like to perform some calculations based on integer values in the database for the "User" class. (using devise.) This is working correctly on users/show.html.erb, but not on registration/edit.html.erb (localhost:3000/users/edit)

To that end, I've set up the following in users_controller.rb

before_action :set_calc_vars, only: [:edit, :show]  

def edit
    @user = User.find(params[:id])

    respond_to do |format|
        format.html # edit.html.erb
        format.xml { render :xml => @user }
    end
  end

def show
    @user = User.find(params[:id])

    respond_to do |format|
        format.html # show.html.erb
        format.xml { render :xml => @user }
    end
end

protected


#Sets value for calculated variables
def set_calc_vars

    user_client = User.find(params[:id])

    @rev_left = user_client.revlimit - user_client.revused

end

On both pages, the code to display the value of @rev_left is:

<%= @rev_left %>

I'm not certain why set_calc_vars is running on show.html.erb but not edit.html.erb.

On show.html.erb it displays the correct integer value for the logged in user. On edit.html.erb is displays nothing, suggesting the value is nil.

My routes are as follows:

devise_for :users
resources :users, :only => [:show]

root 'pages#home'

Yeah that's what I don't get, when I go to users/id (where id= the id of the signed in user) it displays the correct value. When I go to users/edit, however, it displays nothing. — Arw50452, Nov 04 '14 at 19:56
How does your routes look? Another comment is that you are getting your user from the database twice for each request. This could be performed in a before_filter aswell. — Albin, Nov 04 '14 at 20:19
Just edited the original post to add my routes at the end. Do you mean I could just declare user_client as @user_client and delete the other two lines that pull users? I was under the impression that before_action has replaced before_filter in the newest version of ruby? — Arw50452, Nov 04 '14 at 20:24

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:05

According to your routes file, you use devise for authentication and deny all the actions of users_controller except show :

resources :users, :only => [:show]

That means that registration/edit action is served by Devise::RegistrationsController (give it a look here). In case you want to perform some filtering for edit action, you should implement before_action inside of that particular registrations_controller. This can be achieved by a couple of ways:

Monkey-patching devise gem's source code. In this case you should find your gem's local folder and modify the corresponding .rb file (NOT RECOMMENDED).
Overriding devise default controller with your own and applying your before_action to edit of that overriden controller. Basically you can just create folder named devise in your controllers and copy/paste the entire devise controller into it. This requires no additional configuration. For more info on this topic you can take a look at this thread or even just watch through other topics here at Stack Overflow with "devise overriding" titles.

Thank you very much, I've followed the advice you linked and successfully overwritten the registration controller. Everything is now working as it should! — Arw50452, Nov 04 '14 at 20:52

before_action Not Running Before Edit Action

1 Answers1