Call a method in model after find in Ruby on Rails

Question

I would like to know if it is possible to call a method from a model after using find.

Something like after_save, but after_find.

T

Answer 1

Nowadays ((26.04.2012) this is proper way (and working!) to do that:

class SomeClass < ActiveRecord::Base
  after_find :do_something

  def do_something
    # code
  end
end

Answer 2

Edit: For Rails >= 3, see the answer from @nothing-special-here

There is. Along with after_initialize, after_find is a special case, though. You have to define the method, after_find :some_method isn't enough. This should work, though:

class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
  def after_find
    # do something here
  end
end

You can read more about it in the API.

Answer 3

If you need the found object in your method:

class SomeClass < ActiveRecord::Base
  after_find{ |o| do_something(o) }

  def do_something(o)
    # ...
  end
end

More details here: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_record_callbacks.html#after-initialize-and-after-find

Answer 4

Interestingly enough, this will call the method twice... learned that one the hard way.

class Post < ActiveRecord::Base     
  after_find :after_find

  def after_find
    # do something here      
  end 
end