Database locking: ActiveRecord + Heroku
- by JP
I'm building a Sinatra based app for deployment on Heroku. You can imagine it like a standard URL shortener but where old shortcodes expire and become available for new URLs (I realise this is a silly concept but its easier to explain this way). I'm representing the shortcode in my database as an integer and redefining its reader to give a nice short and unique string from the integer.
As some rows will be deleted, I've written code that goes thru all the shortcode integers and picks the first free one to use just before_save. Unfortunately I can make my code create two rows with identical shortcode integers if I run two instances very quickly one after another, which is obviously no good! How should I implement a locking system so that I can quickly save my record with a unique shortcode integer?
Here's what I have so far:
Chars = ('a'..'z').to_a + ('A'..'Z').to_a + ('0'..'9').to_a
CharLength = Chars.length
class Shorts < ActiveRecord::Base
before_save :gen_shortcode
after_save :done_shortcode
def shortcode
i = read_attribute(:shortcode).to_i
return '0' if i == 0
s = ''
while i > 0
s << Chars[i.modulo(CharLength)]
i /= 62
end
s
end
private
def gen_shortcode
shortcode = 0
self.class.find(:all,:order=>"shortcode ASC").each do |s|
if s.read_attribute(:shortcode).to_i != shortcode
# Begin locking?
break
end
shortcode += 1
end
write_attribute(:shortcode,shortcode)
end
def done_shortcode
# End Locking?
end
end
