Form field not part of rails db model

Question

I have a field on a form i'm trying to access in the corresponding model, but it is not part of the models database table. What is the best way to handle this? Is this bad practice?

Answer 1

It is ok to have model attributes that are not in the database table. These are called virtual attributes.

Let's say you want to deal with an attribute called 'virtual_attribute'. Here is how you would deal with it:

While in your form you would have something like this:

<%= f.check_box :virtual_attribute %>

In your model you would have to do this:

attr_accessor :virtual_attribute

Notice that this is a built-in Ruby method that gives you the setter and the getter for that attribute:

#getter
def virtual_attribute
  @virtual_attribute
end

#setter
def virtual_attribute=(value)
  @virtual_attribute = value
end