friendly_id creates new entry on UPDATE

Question

I'm using friendly_id 5.1.0, and when I try to update an entry, for exemple creating a new Article, instead of updating the data of the entry, it creates a new one. I have slugged the title and when I don't change it when editing an article, it creates a slug with a bunch of numbers/letters :

http://localhost:3000/articles/first-article-2d392b8e-92b8-44b0-ad67-50dd674f7aaa

Here's my article.rb Model :

class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
    extend FriendlyId
    has_many :comments

    friendly_id :title, :use => :slugged

    validates :title,   presence: true,
                        length: { minimum: 5}


    def should_generate_new_friendly_id?
         new_record? || title_changed?
    end

when I add :use => [:slugged, :history], when I update an entry and keep the same title, it can't save it because my :slug field is unique :true. Here's my articles_controller.rb :

class ArticlesController < ApplicationController

    def index
        @articles = Article.all.order(created_at: :desc)
    end 

    def show
        @article = Article.friendly.find(params[:id])
        if request.path != article_path(@article)
            redirect_to @article, status: :moved_permanently
        end
    end

    def new
        @article = Article.new
    end

    def edit
        @article = Article.friendly.find(params[:id])
    end

    def create
        @article = Article.new(article_params)

        if @article.save
            redirect_to @article
        else
            render 'new'
        end
    end 

    def update
        @article = Article.friendly.find(params[:id])

        if @article.update(article_params)
            redirect_to @article
        else
            render 'edit'
        end
    end

    def destroy
        @article = Article.friendly.find(params[:id])
        @article.destroy

        redirect_to articles_path
    end

    private
        def article_params
            params.require(:article).permit(:title, :text)  
    end
end

Here's my GitHub repository whith my (unfinished) project : https://github.com/TheDoctor314/blog

Just try using title_changed? in your should_generate_new_friendly_id method — Amit Badheka
Doesn't work :'( . Even stranger : without 'new_record?' it still gererates a slug when creating a new article — TheDoctor

D-side D-side · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-13T13:50:45

This issue has nothing to do with FriendlyID.

Your problem is here (a form used on both new and edit):

<%= bootstrap_form_for :article, url: articles_path do |f| %>

It does not attempt to use your @article object to built that form. So your form always issues a POST request to articles_path, which results in create every time. What you should do instead is:

<%= bootstrap_form_for @article do |f| %>

That way form builder will check if that object is persisted? already, and if so, generate a form that issues a PATCH request to that specific article that triggers an update action. It will try to guess the URL by itself. And it will succeeed only if you follow conventions tightly enough.

If @article is not persisted?, it will do what it did: make a POST to articles_path.

friendly_id creates new entry on UPDATE

3 Answers