Formatting text in the model with Ruby on Rails

Question

How can I make this MVC?

  class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
    validates :price, :presence => true

    def to_s
      "#{name} at #{number_to_currency(price)}"
    end

  end

I need to format price to a currency, but I can't use number_to_currency, because this is in the model. I could pass the view into this, but that doesn't feel very clean.

Does it need to be in the model? Where and how do you use this method? — christianblais
– christianblais, Commented May 8, 2013 at 14:30

toro2k · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-08 14:29:25Z

2

A solution could be to define a ProductHelper module in app/helpers that implements the method you want, say product_name_with_price:

module ProductHelper
  def product_name_with_price(product)
    "#{product.name} at #{number_to_currency(product.price)}"
  end
end

and then in the view

<%= product_name_with_price(@product) %>

answered May 8, 2013 at 14:29

toro2k

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4 Comments

iTake Over a year ago

I am using the .to_s in other models though (specifically to generate PDFs) So technically this never sees a view.

toro2k Over a year ago

Well, if you ask how to make this M V C I suppose there's must be some kind of view. How do you generate the PDF?

iTake Over a year ago

I am using Prawn and the pdfs are getting sent out via email. So the client doesn't see them in the view.

toro2k Over a year ago

Can you update your question adding the code you use to generate the pdf?

Luís Ramalho · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-08 14:26:42Z

1

It is a violation of MVC, but you can have number_to_currency in the model if you wish. You just need to include ActionView::Helpers::NumberHelper.

  class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
    include ActionView::Helpers::NumberHelper
    validates :price, :presence => true

    def to_s
      "#{name} at #{number_to_currency(price)}"
    end

  end

answered May 8, 2013 at 14:26

Luís Ramalho

10.2k4 gold badges54 silver badges69 bronze badges

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