When creating an object in Ruby on Rails, which method of saving do you prefer, and why?

Question

When writing the "create" method for an object in a Ruby on Rails app, I have used two methods. I would like to use one method for the sake of cleaner and more consistent code. I will list the two methods below. Does anyone know if one is better than the other? If so, why?

Method 1:

def create1
  # is this unsecure? should we grab user_id from the session
  params[:venue]['user_id'] = params[:user_id]

  begin
    venue = Venue.create(params[:venue])
    @user_venues = @user.venues
    render :partial => 'venue_select_box', :success => true, :status => :ok
  rescue ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid
    render :text => 'Put errors in here', :success => false, :status => :unprocessable_entity
  end
end

Method 2:

def create2
   # is this unsecure? should we grab user_id from the session
  params[:venue]['user_id'] = params[:user_id]

  venue = Venue.new(params[:venue])
  if venue.save
    @user_venues = @user.venues
    render :partial => 'venue_select_box', :success => true, :status => :ok
  else
    render :text => 'Put errors in here', :success => false, :status => :unprocessable_entity
  end
end

Answer 1

class VenuesController < ApplicationController
  def create
    @venue = @user.venues.create!(params[:venue])
    render :partial => 'venue_select_box', :success => true, :status => :ok
  end

  rescue_from ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid do
    render :text => 'Put errors in here', :success => false, :status => :unprocessable_entity
  end
end

Using @user.venues in this way ensure that the user ID will always be set appropriately. In addition, ActiveRecord will protect the :user_id field from assignment during the course of the #create! call. Hence, attacks from the outside will not be able to modify :user_id.

In your tests, you may verify that doing a POST to :create raises an ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid exception.

Answer 2

I'm of the school of thought that exceptions shouldn't be used for routine conditions, so I'd say the second is better.