ActiveRecord Callbacks you need to know

Hi everyone.

This week, we will be talking about some ActiveRecord callbacks you need to know and when to use them. In a Rails application, objects may be created, updated, and destroyed and ActiveRecord provides hooks into this object life cycle so that you can control your application and its data. This callbacks are methods or functions you want to trigger before or after the state of an object changes. You will see its usage like:

class Article < ApplicationRecord
  after_destroy :log_destroy_action

  def log_destroy_action
    puts 'Article destroyed'
  end
end

The above callback is called after an article has been destroyed. You could rewrite it as what we have below if what you want to do is minimal but it's more advisable to use the format above for a much cleaner code.

class Article < ApplicationRecord
  after_destroy do
    puts 'Article destroyed'
  end
end

Below is a list of the callbacks we will be going through;

• before_validation
• after_validation
• before_save
• around_save
• before_create
• around_create
• after_create
• after_save
• after_commit/after_rollback
• before_update
• around_update
• after_update
• before_destroy
• around_destroy
• after_destroy

I am sure some of the names are self explanatory so I will focus on when to use and examples of how they can be used

before_validation

Actions that trigger it: :create, :update

This callback is used before the model validation takes place. For example, for our Article model, if we want to set the title a value in the case that it is empty, we can do in a before_validation.

class Article < ApplicationRecord
  validates :title, presence: true

  before_validation :ensure_title_has_a_value

  private

  def ensure_login_has_a_value
    if title.nil?
      self.title = "Title #{Title.all.count + 1}"
    end
  end
end

after_validation

Actions that trigger it: :create, :update

This callback is used after the model validation takes place. For our Article model, if we want to capitalize the title of the article, we can do in the after_validation.

class Article < ApplicationRecord
  validates :title, presence: true

  after_validation :capitalize_title

  private

  def capitalize_title
    self.title = title.capitalize
  end
end

before_save

Actions that trigger it: :create, :update

This callback is called before the object is saved to the database. For our Article model, if we want to capitalize the title of the article, we can do in the after_validation.

class Article < ApplicationRecord
  validates :title, presence: true

  before_save :log_message

  private

  def log_message
    puts "You are about to save an article"
  end
end

around_save

Actions that trigger it: :create, :update

This callback is called around the saving the object and inside the before_save and after_save actions. Please note that you need to put a yield in the around_save method so that the action(save) can be performed. For example, if we have an article with the callbacks below;

class Article < ApplicationRecord
  validates :title, presence: true

  before_save :call_before_save
  after_save :call_after_save
  around_save :call_around_save

  private

  def call_before_save
    puts 'before article is saved'
  end

  def call_after_save
    puts 'after article is saved'
  end

  def call_around_save
    puts 'in around article save'
    yield # Article saved
    puts 'out around article save'
  end
end

When we initialize and save a new Article. We should have the following output;

article = Article.new(title: 'My title')
article.save
  before article is saved
  in around article save
  out around article save
  after article is saved

From the above output, you see that the before_save block is called first, next the around_save block. The method first logs the first line, then yields to the save action so the article can be saved to the database. After the save action is complete, control is then returned back to the call_around_save method which logs the last line and then passes control to the after_save callback.

before_create

Actions that trigger it: :create

This callback is the same as the before_save. The only difference is that it is triggered only by the create action.

Note: In a creation operation, the before_save is usually called before the before_create callback.

around_create

Actions that trigger it: :create

This callback is the same as the around_save. The difference between them is that it is triggered only by the create action.

after_create

Actions that trigger it: :create

This callback is the same as the after_save. The only difference is that it is triggered only by the create action.

after_save

Actions that trigger it: :create, :update

This callback is the executed after the object has been saved to the database. It is mostly used when you want to log database changes or track who made changes and in some case, make api call to a third party service

class Article < ApplicationRecord
  validates :title, presence: true

  after_save :tell_salesforce_i_created_a_new_article

  private

  def tell_salesforce_i_created_a_new_article
    puts "Send a message to salesforce via HTTPS with my details"
  end
end

before_update

Actions that trigger it: :update

This callback is the same as the before_save. The difference is that it is triggered only by the update action.

around_update

Actions that trigger it: :update

This callback is the same as the around_save. The difference between them is that it is triggered only by the update action.

after_update

Actions that trigger it: :update

This callback is the same as the after_save. The only difference is that it is triggered only by the update action.

before_destroy

Actions that trigger it: :destroy

This callback is triggered before an object is deleted from the database. You can use this to check for relationships that might be affected by its unavailability and either update those relationships or stop this action. In the case of our articles, if we have a table that saves medias or files associated with it, we can use the before_destroy callback to check that this article doesn't have a relationship saved in that table. If it exists, we can stop the action from going forward.

around_destroy

Actions that trigger it: :destroy

This callback works like the around_save but only for a destroy action.

after_destroy

Actions that trigger it: :destroy

This callback is triggered after an object has been deleted. Mostly utilized for cleanups. It can be used to update records, make an API call to a 3rd party service to notify it that the object has been deleted or trigger a background job.

after_commit/after_rollback

Actions that trigger it: :create, :update, :destroy

This callback is called after an object has been created, updated or destroyed. It can replace the after_save, after_update, after_update or after_destroy callbacks. You use this method when you want to run the same method when any of these 3 actions are executed.

Extras

after_initialize

The after_initialize callback is called whenever an object is instantiated, either by directly using new keyword or when a record is loaded from the database.

after_find

The after_find callback is called whenever Active Record finds and loads a record from the database.

Resources

• ActiveRecord Callback
• Around_save question on Stackoverflow - Answer 2
• Rails Callback Cheatsheet
• Difference between before_save and before_create - Stackoverflow

Comments

[Ian bradbury]

Are there any times when you would not recommend using call backs?

[Mbonu Blessing]

Sure. That would be in cases were you can clean up your data in the controller or use database default values. For instance, if I have an article model with a boolean datatype for the published value, and I am using a before_validation to set the default value of false if its nil, that is a wrong use of callbacks even if it works. You could have easily set a default value when creating that database column since we know it's always going to be false until the creator of the article decides to publish it.