Ash Framework•2mo ago

Forgotten `change` in update action leads to hours of troubleshooting and sadness

I forgot a change in front of a set_attribute in an update action and nothing really reacted to that except that the attribute wasn't set. Is there a flag I can set somewhere to have Spark or Ash or something crash loudly at me when I use keywords in wrong places? Sad code:

    update :set_family do
      argument :family_id, :uuid, allow_nil?: true, public?: true
      set_attribute(:family_id, arg(:family_id))
    end

    update :set_family do
      argument :family_id, :uuid, allow_nil?: true, public?: true
      set_attribute(:family_id, arg(:family_id))
    end

Happy code:

    update :set_family do
      argument :family_id, :uuid, allow_nil?: true, public?: true
      change set_attribute(:family_id, arg(:family_id))
    end

    update :set_family do
      argument :family_id, :uuid, allow_nil?: true, public?: true
      change set_attribute(:family_id, arg(:family_id))
    end

10 Replies

ZachDaniel•2mo ago

We've had this issue multiple times, and honestly its just a weirdly hard problem to solve 😢

Andreas Ekeroot @ workOP•2mo ago

Oh no. 🙁 Well at least I know I'm not alone in this.

ZachDaniel•2mo ago

it is silly that it can happen, I just haven't found a good way to prevent it 😢

Meeq•2mo ago

Seems like something that a Credo check could spot and warn about

ZachDaniel•2mo ago

Its possible, but not super easy arbitrary code can go in actions i.e

create :create do
  your_own_macro()
end

create :create do
  your_own_macro()
end

We could try and spot builtin changes without change

Andreas Ekeroot @ workOP•2mo ago

What if that macro is evaluated/normalized/demacrofied and then the check is run? Or is it still possible to have any Elixir you want in the action?

ZachDaniel•2mo ago

I don't think it really works that way I don't know of like an ability to do a post-expension pass like that

Gonzalo Muñoz•2mo ago

There could be an 80/20 solution maybe? Like setting up a whitelist of "must be there"s. For example, I don't think we can have a resources do block without a resource macro inside, right?

ZachDaniel•2mo ago

Potentially yes I see no reason for folks not to build credo checks like that or to have an ash_credo package for example

Andreas Ekeroot @ workOP•2mo ago

I was hoping it was possible. Oh well.

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Forgotten `change` in update action leads to hours of troubleshooting and sadness

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