How to track the very first time a controller is called in a user session (Ruby on Rails)?

Question

I would like to check if a controller is being called for the very first time in the user's session. Is a class variable the right choice for this? Any good practice as to how to implement this check?

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 07 '18 at 16:16

You can use session variable that sets info in user session. For instance:

if session[:my_controller_accessed]
  do_stuff_for_another_visit
else
  session[:my_controller_accessed] = true
  do_stuff_for_first_visit
end

More on sessions: https://www.justinweiss.com/articles/how-rails-sessions-work/

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 07 '18 at 16:19

3

The answer is in your question: In a user session

You can do smth like this in your controller

before_action :record_visit

# ...


def record_visit
  session[:visited_controllets] ||= {}
  session[:visited_controllets][self.class.name] = true
end

Later you can check whether the given controller was accessed using session[:visited_controllets][contoller_class_name]

answered Dec 07 '18 at 16:19

Alex Suslyakov

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Does this mean `record_visit` would be called before any function in the controller gets called? – Biju Dec 08 '18 at 06:28
@Biju correct. Here's the documentation https://guides.rubyonrails.org/action_controller_overview.html#filters – Alex Suslyakov Dec 09 '18 at 16:31

How to track the very first time a controller is called in a user session (Ruby on Rails)?

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