From: Andrew Stewart <boss@...>
Date: 2007-11-28T01:21:33+09:00
Subject: Re: Rake Tasks... undefined method `get_alerts'

Hi,

You're more likely to get a good range of answers on the Rails list  
(this is the Ruby one):

http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk

In the meantime I've tried to answer your questions:

> namespace :utils do
>   desc "Find pending alerts and send out emails"
>   task(:send_alerts => :environment) do
>     for alert in Reminder.get_alerts
>       if alert.done = 0

Do you really mean = or do you mean == ?

If alert.done has just two states you'd be better off using a boolean.

>         puts "Alert #{alert.title} - #{alert.date}"
>         UserMailer.deliver_reminder(alert)
>         alert.done = 1
>         alert.save!

You could replace these two lines with:

   alert.update_attributes! :done => 1

>       end
>     end
>   end
> end
>
>
> all that works fine but the actual task: Reminder.get_alerts

Rather than testing alert.done inside your loop, it would be better  
to select only those records you need in Reminder.get_alerts.

> when running it, it says: undefined method `get_alerts' for
> Reminder:Class
>
> i can run it via Reminder.find_all but only want to return certain
> situations, so i've placed the task to do it in my Reminder Model but
> that doesn't work, tried in the controller or helper but still it
> doesn't see the method.
>
> Any ideas where i should put the 'get_alerts' method?


It should be in the model.  It's a class level method so you should  
define it like this (there are a couple of other ways; just ensure  
you don't define it as an instance method):

class Reminder < ActiveRecord::Base
   def self.get_alerts
     ...
   end
end

If your reminder model has many alerts, you could simply define the  
association you need:

class Reminder < ActiveRecord::Base
   has_many :alerts
   has_many :outstanding_alerts,
            :class_name => 'Alert',
            :conditions => 'done = 0'
end

And then your client code can say Reminder.outstanding_alerts.

Regards,
Andy Stewart

-------
http://airbladesoftware.com