Rails: Active record query conditions only work if stated as sql -- using Globalize gem

Question

Not sure if there is a fix for this that you know of, but when using the the globalize gem

class Menu < ActiveRecord::Base

  translates :name
  # other stuff ... 

end 

if I write an active record query as standard, it products an empty set.

-- Generically

Model.where(attribute: "Value")

doesn't work, where

Model.where('attribute = ?', 'Value')

does work.

--- A real world example from the console on my Menu model:

2.3.0 (main):0 > Menu.where(name: "Lunch Boxes")
=> []
2.3.0 (main):0 > Menu.where('name = ?', "Lunch Boxes")
=> [#<Menu:0x007fbab6dc6838 id: 12, restaurant_id: 15, name: "Lunch Boxes", created_at: Wed, 05 Jul 2017 16:07:20 EDT -04:00, updated_at: Thu, 10 Aug 2017 14:48:38 EDT -04:00>]

Can anyone tell me why this is happening?

Just for good measure

Rails 4.2.6 Ruby 2.3.0

Answer 1

Thanks @mu-is-too-short -- no idea how long it would have taken to figure that out on my own.

The trick to figuring out what was happening was to convert to two commands I was comparing to sql so I could see exactly what was being attempted.

Menu.where(name: "Lunch Boxes").to_sql
Menu.where('name = ?', "Lunch Boxes").to_sql

These produced, respectively:

=> "SELECT \"menus\".* FROM \"menus\" WHERE (name = 'Lunch Boxes')"

and

=> "SELECT \"menus\".* FROM \"menus\" INNER JOIN \"menu_translations\" 
  ON \"menu_translations\".\"menu_id\" = \"menus\".\"id\" WHERE 
  \"menu_translations\".\"name\" = 'Lunch Boxes' AND 
  \"menu_translations\".\"locale\" = 'fr'"

So then I ran the query directly in the psql console, and came back with an empty set. Because it was joining on the menu_translations table, made possible by using the model helper that comes with the Globalize gem, ie:

 translates :name

SO then I checked the translation table, and found that the term "Lunch Boxes" didn't exist with any translation, and because the the attribute name is globalized, it requires a translation.

Added the translation, problem solved. Hope this helps someone else.

Answer 2

It's all right. You are trying to get this data from class, and rails waiting for filter for special characters.

More info - SQL Injection: 7.2.4 Countermeasures