Before_create isn't working

Question

In my Article model file I have:

before_create   :generate_token
validates :token, presence: true
private
def generate_token
  self.token = SecureRandom.urlsafe_base64
end

And in my migration:

t.string :token, null: false

But now tests that create an article fail with ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid: Validation failed: Token can't be blank. In these tests I indeed don't give a value for token. However, shouldn't the before_create method above do this automatically? It concerns test that call upon the create method for a new author, of which the controller method includes the line @author.articles.create! (so without a token value for the article).

P.S. I put the debugger at the top of the generate_token method, and it never fires for any of the tests.

Answer 1

#app/models/article.rb
class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
   before_validation :generate_token, on: :create
   validates :token, presence: true

   private

   def generate_token
        self.token = loop do
            random_token = SecureRandom.urlsafe_base64
            break random_token unless self.class.exists? random_token
        end
   end
end

---

A much better way is to use has_secure_token (included in Rails 5; gem here):

#Gemfile
gem "has_secure_token" #-> not needed for Rails 5

#app/models/article.rb
class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
   has_secure_token
end