before_action don't work for BotController actions

[Luiz Carvalho]

Describe the bug
I tried use before_action to handle messages in BotController.route, but not work, I tried use in action of another Controller, and works. Why?

To Reproduce

class BotController < Stealth::Controller

  helper :all
  before_action :print_this, only: :route


  def route
    if current_session.present?
      step_to session: current_session
    else
      step_to flow: 'hello', state: 'say_hello'
    end
  end

  def print_this
    puts "\n\n\n\n\n aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa \n\n\n\n"
  end

end

Expected behavior
Show print_this message in log

[Mauricio Gomes]

@luizcarvalho if you remove the only: :route part, does it work? I suspect it's because route isn't actually an action.

[Luiz Carvalho]

@mgomes still not working without only option.
route isn't a action? oh no... =(

[Mauricio Gomes]

The callback chain (before, after, around) get called around a controller action. The route method is really just a special method.

What if you just called your action inside the route method?

class BotController < Stealth::Controller

  helper :all

  def route
    print_this # before

    if current_session.present?
      step_to session: current_session
    else
      step_to flow: 'hello', state: 'say_hello'
    end
  end

  def print_this
    puts "\n\n\n\n\n aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa \n\n\n\n"
  end

end

[Luiz Carvalho]

@mgomes I see it now.
print_this is only a example, I have same methods to call in route and I do not want put all in route methods... and I thought about using the before_action for this. But if no possible, I'll do this.

Thanks.

[Mauricio Gomes]

We typically handle Facebook payloads in a similar way. Our BotController usually looks something like this for Facebook bots:

class BotController < Stealth::Controller

  before_action :current_user

  def route
    if current_message.payload.present?
      handle_payloads
      current_message.payload = nil
      return
    end

    if current_session.present?
      step_to session: current_session
    else
      step_to flow: 'hello', state: 'say_hello'
    end
  end

private

  def handle_payloads
    case current_message.payload
    when 'new_user'
      step_to flow: 'hello'
    when 'developer_restart', 'restart'
      step_to flow: 'goodbye', state: 'restart'
    end
  end

  def current_user
    @current_user ||= begin
      user = User.find_by(recipient_id: current_user_id)

      unless user.present?
        user = persist_current_user
      end

      user
    end
  end

  def persist_current_user
    fb_profile = Stealth::Services::Facebook::Client.fetch_profile(
      recipient_id: current_user_id
    )

    user = User.create!(
      recipient_id: current_user_id,
      first_name: fb_profile['first_name'],
      last_name: fb_profile['last_name'],
      profile_pic: fb_profile['profile_pic']
    )
    user
  end

end