Should I use class method or instance method, and why?

Question

In my Rails app, when creating a business I have a form that has the following field:

   <%= check_box_tag(:default_company) %> 
   <%= label_tag(:defau         


        

Answer 1

As their name suggests, instance methods on a model should be used for logic/operations that relate to a specific instance of a user (the one on which the method is called.) So you could think of setting the default company for a user as an instance method on User. Class methods are for things which don't operate on an individual instance of a model or for cases where you don't have the instance available to you. e.g. you might have a class method to tidy up your database such as User.purge_expired_users which would not apply to an individual user object.

e.g.

class User
  def set_default_company(company)
    exists = DefaultCompany.find(self.id)
    if exists
      exists.update_attributes(company: company)
    else  
      DefaultCompany.create(company: company, user: self)
    end
  end
end

then your controller method would look like:

def create
  @company = Company.new(params[:company])

  if @company.save
    if params[:default_company]
      current_user.set_default_company @company
    end
    flash[:notice] = "Company was successfully created."
    redirect_to @company
  else
    redirect_to new_company_path
  end
end

Alternatively, you could think of the relationship from the other perspective and put an instance method on Company e.g. company.set_as_default_for(user).