ruby 41 lines · 8 steps

A guarded destroy action in Rails

A namespaced admin controller deletes an account only after confirmation, protection, and transactional safety checks.

Explained by highlit
Rails Intermediate controllers callbacks transactions authorization auditing
1class Admin::AccountsController < Admin::BaseController
2 before_action :set_account, only: :destroy
3 
4 def destroy
5 if params[:confirm_name] != @account.name
6 redirect_to admin_account_path(@account),
7 alert: "Type the account name exactly to confirm deletion."
8 return
9 end
10 
11 if @account.protected?
12 redirect_to admin_account_path(@account),
13 alert: "This account is protected and cannot be deleted."
14 return
15 end
16 
17 @account.transaction do
18 @account.memberships.destroy_all
19 @account.destroy!
20 end
21 
22 AccountAuditLog.record!(
23 action: :destroyed,
24 target: @account,
25 actor: current_admin,
26 metadata: { name: @account.name }
27 )
28 
29 redirect_to admin_accounts_path,
30 notice: "Account #{@account.name} was permanently deleted."
31 rescue ActiveRecord::RecordNotDestroyed => e
32 redirect_to admin_account_path(@account),
33 alert: "Could not delete account: #{e.message}"
34 end
35 
36 private
37 
38 def set_account
39 @account = Account.find(params[:id])
40 end
41end
01 / 01
STEP 01

Walkthrough

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Three takeaways
  1. 1Guard clauses with early returns keep destructive actions readable by rejecting bad requests before any mutation happens.
  2. 2Wrapping dependent deletions in a transaction ensures the record and its associations are removed atomically or not at all.
  3. 3Recording an audit log after a successful destroy preserves accountability for irreversible operations.

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