How can I improve my “newname” method

Question

I am a student and I got the memo (without explanation) that my following code is bugged and can be much better. How would you improve my controller#newname method? Thank you for your time!

class ReviewController < ApplicationController

    def index
        @reviews = Review.all.order(created_at: :desc)
    end

    def newname
        @review = Review.find(params[:id])
        if @review.update_attribute(:title, sanitize(params[:title]))
            format.json { render json: { status: 200 } }
        else
            format.json { render json: { status: 500 } }
        end
    end

end

Answer 1

The biggest flaw is that update_attribute skips all the validations, hence, your else statement will rarely/never be executed. Change it to:

@review.name = sanitize(params[:title])
if @review.save
  #...

and it should be much better.

Answer 2

I think you could perhaps do something similar to:

class ReviewController < ApplicationController

    def index
        @reviews = Review.all.order(created_at: :desc)
    end

    def newname
        @review = Review.find(params[:id])
        if @review.update(:title => sanitize(params[:title]))
          render json: @review
        else
          render :json => { errors: @review.errors.full_messages }, status: 422
        end
    end

end

The idea being to stay 'on the rails' and let the conventions do the work for you.

This addresses the

• status code
• method used to update
• errors

Answer 3

To build upon BroiSatse's answer, I would definitely use save instead of update_attribute. I would also return the errors that occur so the user can parse or show them. If you're on Rails 4, use strong params (declare in a private method in controller)

Rails 3:

 def newname
        @review = Review.find(params[:id])
        @review.title = sanitize(params[:title])
        if @review.save
            format.json { render json: { status: 200 } }
        else
            render :json => {:errors => @review.errors.full_messages}, :status => 422
        end
    end

Rails 4

  class ReviewController < ApplicationController
    before_action :set_review, only [:newname] #list additional methods as needed...
    ...
    def newname
        #@review is retrieved from set_review
        if @review.update(review_params)
             format.json { render json: { status: 200 } }
        else
             render :json => {:errors => @review.errors.full_messages}, :status => 422
        end
    end

 private
    def set_review
      @review = Review.find(params[:id])
    end

    def review_params
      params.require(:review).permit(:title)
    end
end