Initialize Extra Attributes In Activerecord-classes

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        Classes derived from ActiveRecord::Base don't call initialize on creation. 
Extra attributes (i.e. non DB-attributes) can be initialized with the after_initialize callback.

class Something < ActiveRecord::Base 
  attr_reader :extra_attribute

  def after_initialize
    @extra_attribute = 'default_value'
  end

References:
- http://blog.dalethatcher.com/2008/03/rails-dont-override-initialize-on.html
- http://blog.hasmanythrough.com/2007/1/22/using-faux-accessors-to-initialize-values    

Tags:
• active-record
• extra-attribute
• initialize
• Rails