How is attr_accessible used in Rails 4?

Question

attr_accessible seems to no longer work within my model.

What is the way to allow mass assignment in Rails 4?

Answer 1

If you prefer attr_accessible, you could use it in Rails 4 too. You should install it like gem:

gem 'protected_attributes'

after that you could use attr_accessible in you models like in Rails 3

Also, and i think that is the best way- using form objects for dealing with mass assignment, and saving nested objects, and you can also use protected_attributes gem that way

class NestedForm
   include  ActiveModel::MassAssignmentSecurity
   attr_accessible :name,
                   :telephone, as: :create_params
   def create_objects(params)
      SomeModel.new(sanitized_params(params, :create_params))
   end
end

Answer 2

Rails 4 now uses strong parameters.

Protecting attributes is now done in the controller. This is an example:

class PeopleController < ApplicationController
  def create
    Person.create(person_params)
  end

  private

  def person_params
    params.require(:person).permit(:name, :age)
  end
end

No need to set attr_accessible in the model anymore.

Dealing with accepts_nested_attributes_for

In order to use accepts_nested_attribute_for with strong parameters, you will need to specify which nested attributes should be whitelisted.

class Person
  has_many :pets
  accepts_nested_attributes_for :pets
end

class PeopleController < ApplicationController
  def create
    Person.create(person_params)
  end

  # ...

  private

  def person_params
    params.require(:person).permit(:name, :age, pets_attributes: [:name, :category])
  end
end

Keywords are self-explanatory, but just in case, you can find more information about strong parameters in the Rails Action Controller guide.

Note: If you still want to use attr_accessible, you need to add protected_attributes to your Gemfile. Otherwise, you will be faced with a RuntimeError.

Answer 3

An update for Rails 5:

gem 'protected_attributes' 

doesn't seem to work anymore. But give:

gem 'protected_attributes_continued'

a try.

Answer 4

We can use

params.require(:person).permit(:name, :age)

where person is Model, you can pass this code on a method person_params & use in place of params[:person] in create method or else method

Answer 5

1) Update Devise so that it can handle Rails 4.0 by adding this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'devise', '3.0.0.rc' 

Then execute:

$ bundle

2) Add the old functionality of attr_accessible again to rails 4.0

Try to use attr_accessible and don't comment this out.

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'protected_attributes'

Then execute:

$ bundle