Accessing database info in rails controller - ruby-on-rails-4

Question

I'm having trouble defining an amount for a pay action in my item controller. I'm trying to pull in the item price stored in the db. I've tried everything. I reread this, http://guides.rubyonrails.org/action_controller_overview.html, and still no luck.
In items controller:
def pay
# Find the user to pay.
user = User.find( params[:id] )
amount = #I have no idea what to put here
fee = 100
If I put in a number it works fine. However when I try to access the item price that is stored in the db, that is when things blow up.
I've tried various definitions:
#item.price #fail
item_price #fail
Item.find (params: [:price]) #fail
Item.price #fail
#EVERYTHING FAILS
Schema:
ActiveRecord::Schema.define(version: 20150127171203) do
create_table "items", force: true do |t|
t.string "name"
t.decimal "price"
t.text "description"
t.integer "booth_id"
t.datetime "created_at", null: false
t.datetime "updated_at", null: false
t.integer "category_id"
t.integer "user_id"
t.string "image"
t.string "image_two"
end
create_table "users", force: true do |t|
t.string "name"
t.string "email"
t.datetime "created_at", null: false
t.datetime "updated_at", null: false
t.string "password_digest"
t.string "remember_digest"
t.string "activation_digest"
t.boolean "activated", default: false
t.datetime "activated_at"
t.string "reset_digest"
t.datetime "reset_sent_at"
t.boolean "admin", default: false
t.string "avatar"
t.text "about"
t.string "location"
t.string "publishable_key"
t.string "secret_key"
t.string "stripe_user_id"
t.string "currency"
end
(edit) I also tried defining items in the pay action and that did not help either. 'item = Item.find ( params[:id]'
Does anyone know the right way to do this? I feel like this should be easy but I'm having trouble with it.
Thanks for your consideration and help!

Answer 1

How is a user related to an item? I ask this because if you are using active record, the associations you make in your database will determine the methods that are created for you. Does a user has_many items in your model? Does an item belong_to a user? In which case would be
#user = User.find(1)
and you could find the price like
#item = #user.items.find(1)
#price = #item.price
EDIT
Ok, I took a look at the code you provided here. This example shows a pay method defining a route in the users controller which seems to only be setup to accept a one time fee. In the comments above it, it even says make a one-off payment so we know this is true.
Even in this example here they explicitly say it's for a fixed amount. Now how do we make it dynamic? Well, look at the code. There's some logic in the pay controller isn't there?
You see that Stripe::Charge object being created?
charge = Stripe::Charge.create(
{
amount: amount,
currency: user.currency,
card: params[:token],
description: "Test Charge via Stripe Connect",
application_fee: fee
},
# Use the user-to-be-paid's access token
# to make the charge.
user.secret_key
)
You can move this logic into your item MODEL. Call it pay or something as long as it takes in the user as a parameter.
def pay(user)
amount = self.price
begin
charge = Stripe::Charge.create(
{
amount: amount,
currency: user.currency,
card: user.token,
description: "Test Charge via Stripe Connect",
application_fee: fee
},
# Use the user-to-be-paid's access token
# to make the charge.
user.secret_key
)
flash[:notice] = "Charged successfully! <a target='_blank' rel='connected-account' href='https://dashboard.stripe.com/test/payments/#{charge.id}'>View in dashboard »</a>"
rescue Stripe::CardError => e
error = e.json_body[:error][:message]
flash[:error] = "Charge failed! #{error}"
end
end
Then somewhere in your items CONTROLLER define the pay method instead of users like you had before(Make sure you change your routes accordingly). Then call the pay method you just defined, this way you have the price and you can find the user that is currently logged in.
def pay
user = User.find(session[:user_id])
item = Item.find(params[:id])
item.pay(user)
redirect "somewhere"
end