Difference between attr_accessor and attr_accessible

attr_accessor is a Ruby method that makes a getter and a setter. attr_accessible is a Rails method that allows you to pass in values to a mass assignment: new(attrs) or update_attributes(attrs).

Here's a mass assignment:

Order.new({ :type => 'Corn', :quantity => 6 })

You can imagine that the order might also have a discount code, say :price_off. If you don't tag :price_off as attr_accessible you stop malicious code from being able to do like so:

Order.new({ :type => 'Corn', :quantity => 6, :price_off => 30 })

Even if your form doesn't have a field for :price_off, if it's in your model it's available by default. This means a crafted POST could still set it. Using attr_accessible white lists those things that can be mass assigned.

Many people on this thread and on google explain very well that attr_accessible specifies a whitelist of attributes that are allowed to be updated in bulk (all the attributes of an object model together at the same time) This is mainly (and only) to protect your application from "Mass assignment" pirate exploit.

This is explained here on the official Rails doc : Mass Assignment

attr_accessor is a ruby code to (quickly) create setter and getter methods in a Class. That's all.

Now, what is missing as an explanation is that when you create somehow a link between a (Rails) model with a database table, you NEVER, NEVER, NEVER need attr_accessor in your model to create setters and getters in order to be able to modify your table's records.

This is because your model inherits all methods from the ActiveRecord::Base Class, which already defines basic CRUD accessors (Create, Read, Update, Delete) for you. This is explained on the offical doc here Rails Model and here Overwriting default accessor (scroll down to the chapter "Overwrite default accessor")

Say for instance that: we have a database table called "users" that contains three columns "firstname", "lastname" and "role" :

SQL instructions :

CREATE TABLE users (
  firstname string,
  lastname string
  role string
);

I assumed that you set the option config.active_record.whitelist_attributes = true in your config/environment/production.rb to protect your application from Mass assignment exploit. This is explained here : Mass Assignment

Your Rails model will perfectly work with the Model here below :

class User < ActiveRecord::Base

end

However you will need to update each attribute of user separately in your controller for your form's View to work :

def update
    @user = User.find_by_id(params[:id])
    @user.firstname = params[:user][:firstname]
    @user.lastname = params[:user][:lastname]

    if @user.save
        # Use of I18 internationalization t method for the flash message
        flash[:success] = t('activerecord.successful.messages.updated', :model => User.model_name.human)
    end

    respond_with(@user)
end

Now to ease your life, you don't want to make a complicated controller for your User model. So you will use the attr_accessible special method in your Class model :

class User < ActiveRecord::Base

  attr_accessible :firstname, :lastname

end

So you can use the "highway" (mass assignment) to update :

def update
    @user = User.find_by_id(params[:id])

    if @user.update_attributes(params[:user])
        # Use of I18 internationlization t method for the flash message
        flash[:success] = t('activerecord.successful.messages.updated', :model => User.model_name.human)
    end

    respond_with(@user)
end

You didn't add the "role" attributes to the attr_accessible list because you don't let your users set their role by themselves (like admin). You do this yourself on another special admin View.

Though your user view doesn't show a "role" field, a pirate could easily send a HTTP POST request that include "role" in the params hash. The missing "role" attribute on the attr_accessible is to protect your application from that.

You can still modify your user.role attribute on its own like below, but not with all attributes together.

@user.role = DEFAULT_ROLE

Why the hell would you use the attr_accessor?

Well, this would be in the case that your user-form shows a field that doesn't exist in your users table as a column.

For instance, say your user view shows a "please-tell-the-admin-that-I'm-in-here" field. You don't want to store this info in your table. You just want that Rails send you an e-mail warning you that one "crazy" ;-) user has subscribed.

To be able to make use of this info you need to store it temporarily somewhere. What more easy than recover it in a user.peekaboo attribute ?

So you add this field to your model :

class User < ActiveRecord::Base

  attr_accessible :firstname, :lastname
  attr_accessor :peekaboo

end

So you will be able to make an educated use of the user.peekaboo attribute somewhere in your controller to send an e-mail or do whatever you want.

ActiveRecord will not save the "peekaboo" attribute in your table when you do a user.save because she don't see any column matching this name in her model.

Difference between attr_accessor and attr_accessible

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