Using activerecord on a table with a colum `changed` raises error

Question

A legacy database has a column changed (containing an updated_at timestamp).

This results in an error changed? is defined by ActiveRecord, but only when I open its association.

I have tried to:

override instance_method_already_implemented?
And to alias that column.
To add custom methods using write_attribute and read_attribute.

But none of that avoids the failure.

Can a changed column exist? At all? I would prefer not to have to alter the table, because that means changing a lot of legacycode too.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 15 '11 at 22:30

1

One of the few downsides to ActiveRecord are all the already-taken attribute names. This is one of them, and it can be an error-prone nightmare to work around ActiveRecord's declarations.

If your database supports them, you could create a view of the table just to present different column names to ActiveRecord.

answered Mar 15 '11 at 22:30

dunedain289

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My database (MySQL) supports this and it sounds a good idea, since it solves some other problems I had too. Thanks for the pointer. – berkes Mar 16 '11 at 10:13

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 15 '11 at 22:27

0

Try disabling partial updates in ActiveRecord in your initializer:

ActiveRecord::Base.partial_updates = false

answered Mar 15 '11 at 22:27

edmz

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I think that disables dirty checking but it will still have defined the changed method. – edmz Mar 15 '11 at 22:35
Nope :(. I tried this, but it still fails. For the record: I am using it in a rake task, so I tried both an initializer and to set this at the start of the rake task. But the error stays. – berkes Mar 15 '11 at 22:37

Using activerecord on a table with a colum `changed` raises error

2 Answers2