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📝 As an app user, I want to see the archived status of users, so that I can know who is available.

Up until now we’ve assumed that users will be around forever, but there are many reasons why we’d want to archive a user. For this we’ll need to store someone’s archived status. Some options are a string/integer/enum field named state, a timestamp field named archived_at, or a boolean field named archived. state may be a great choice when there are multiple states required. archived_at would be useful as well because not only does a timestamp tell you whether a flag has been set, it tells you when. For our app, though, we don’t anticipate any further state complexity or timestamp requirements. Let’s just go with the simplest and smallest of the three, a boolean field named archived.

Generate a migration for the new column.

Terminal

bin/rails g migration AddArchivedToUser archived:boolean

We’ll make a couple additions to the migration. First, we’ll add a not-null constraint. That will help us Avoid the Three-state Boolean Problem. Second, we’ll add a default value. PostgreSQL will use the default for any existing columns. Keep in mind that this can be dangerous with a large number of existing rows. We don’t have to worry about that yet. The default will also be used for any new instances of User where archived is not specified.

Make those changes to the migration.

db/migrate/[timestamp]_add_archived_to_user.rb

class AddArchivedToUser < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.0]
  def change
    add_column :users, :archived, :boolean, null: false, default: false
  end
end

Run the migration.

Terminal

bin/rails db:migrate

Add a validation for the new column.

app/models/user.rb

class User < ApplicationRecord
  validates :name, :email, presence: true
  validates :email, uniqueness: { case_sensitive: false }
  validates :archived, exclusion: [nil]
end

Add tests for the changes.

test/models/user_test.rb

require "test_helper"

class UserTest < ActiveSupport::TestCase
  context "validations" do
    should validate_presence_of(:name)
    should validate_presence_of(:email)
    should validate_uniqueness_of(:email).case_insensitive
    should validate_exclusion_of(:archived).in_array([nil])
  end
end

Run the tests.

Terminal

bin/rails t test/models/user_test.rb

Expose the new field to the API.

app/graphql/types/user_type.rb

module Types
  class UserType < Types::BaseObject
    field :id, ID, null: false
    field :name, String, null: false
    field :email, String, null: false
    field :created_at, GraphQL::Types::ISO8601DateTime, null: false
    field :updated_at, GraphQL::Types::ISO8601DateTime, null: false
    field :archived, Boolean, null: false
  end
end

Add the new field to relevant tests.

test/integration/types/query_type/user_test.rb

require "test_helper"

class Types::QueryType::UserTest < ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest
  setup do
    @query = <<~GRAPHQL
      query User($id: ID!) {
        user(id: $id) {
          id
          name
          email
          createdAt
          updatedAt
          archived
        }
      }
    GRAPHQL
  end

  test "user" do
    user = users(:daniel)

    post graphql_path, params: { query: @query, variables: { id: user.id } }

    assert_equal(
      {
        "data" => {
          "user" => {
            "id" => user.id.to_s,
            "name" => user.name,
            "email" => user.email,
            "createdAt" => user.created_at.iso8601,
            "updatedAt" => user.updated_at.iso8601,
            "archived" => user.archived,
          },
        },
      },
      @response.parsed_body
    )
  end

  test "user not found" do
    post graphql_path, params: { query: @query, variables: { id: "0" } }

    assert_equal(
      {
        "data" => nil,
        "errors" => [
          {
            "message" => "User not found",
            "locations" => [{ "line" => 2, "column" => 3 }],
            "path" => ["user"],
          },
        ],
      },
      @response.parsed_body
    )
  end
end

Run the tests.

Terminal

bin/rails t test/integration/types/query_type/user_test.rb

Add the new field to one more test.

test/integration/types/query_type/users_test.rb

require "test_helper"

class Types::QueryType::UsersTest < ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest
  test "users" do
    query = <<~GRAPHQL
      {
        users {
          id
          name
          email
          createdAt
          updatedAt
          archived
        }
      }
    GRAPHQL

    post graphql_path, params: { query: query }

    users_in_email_order = [
      users(:adrian),
      users(:chantel),
      users(:daniel),
      users(:sarah),
    ]

    assert_equal(
      {
        "data" => {
          "users" => users_in_email_order.map { |user|
            {
              "id" => user.id.to_s,
              "name" => user.name,
              "email" => user.email,
              "createdAt" => user.created_at.iso8601,
              "updatedAt" => user.updated_at.iso8601,
              "archived" => user.archived,
            }
          },
        },
      },
      @response.parsed_body
    )
  end
end

Run the tests.

Terminal

bin/rails t test/integration/types/query_type/users_test.rb

Check for regressions by running all tests.

Terminal

bin/rails t

Success!

✅ Make a commit

✅ As an app user, I want to see the archived status of users, so that I can know who is available.

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Next: Chapter 13 - The Filter