ActiveRecord / Rails - Access model instance variable that is overridden by a module method

Question

Suppose we have an ActiveRecord model Group which has a property (and column in database) called name (it is actually not visible by default):

class Group < ActiveRecord::Base
  include App::CustomModule
end

Also there is a custom module CustomModule included into a Group model, which has a method called name:

module App
  module CustomModule
    def name
      'module name'
    end
  end
end

As a result, when referencing to a name inside of a Group model instance I get a value from a CustomModule's name method (the same is for self.name):

> Group.find(1).name
=> "module name"

How can I get a value for original name property of Group model instance (not module method value) without changing the names of both class property and module method?

rails (4.0.4) activerecord (4.0.4)

Sergio Tulentsev Sergio Tulentsev · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-08T20:08:34

This should do the trick:

group.read_attribute(:name)

ActiveRecord / Rails - Access model instance variable that is overridden by a module method

1 Answers