Who can explain how this code block works: Carrierwave MD5 as filename - ruby

Question

I am using the Carrierwave gem with a Sinatra app to upload and store images.
I am following How to: Use file's MD5 as filename and everything works as expected. However I do not understand how the following piece of code provided on the how-to page works:
class ImageUploader < CarrierWave::Uploader::Base
storage :file
def md5
chunk = model.send(mounted_as)
#md5 ||= Digest::MD5.hexdigest(chunk.read)
end
def filename
#name ||= "#{md5}#{File.extname(super)}" if super
end
end
I in particular do not understand what model.send(mounted_as)does, what the ||= operator means, and why the if super conditional is used (and what it does).
Could somebody please explain this to me?

Answer 1

Say, for example the model is Person and the ImageUploader is mounted as avatar.
class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
mount_uploader :avatar, ImageUploader
end
Then, the md5 method would be calling something to the affect of chunk = person.avatar and using this to calculate the hash of the file contents, which you want for the name.
The filename method checking to see if there is a #filename instance variable, as defined in the CarrierWave::Uploader::Store class.
class CarrierWave::Uploader::Store
def filename
#filename
end
end
Then calling this again to get the filename extension to use in the constructed filename. The #name variable is then just a temporary cache of the name, so that future calls to the method do not require the whole thing to be calculated again.
Edit:
The carrierwave uploader has methods/instance variables for the model (eg Person instance) and declared mount point in the model (eg avatar). These are from the mount_uploader declaration in your active record model.
module CarrierWave::Uploader::Mountable
attr_reader :model, :mounted_as
def initialize(model=nil, mounted_as=nil)
#model = model
#mounted_as = mounted_as
end
end
These are used for various things, as well as being made available for us to do things just such as you are trying. It is just an abstract way to call person.avatar, which returns the file (File instance not string path). This is then read into the MD5 lib, which gives the hexdigest.
Rewriting this in more plain terms
class ImageUploader < CarrierWave::Uploader::Base
def md5
uploaded_file = model.send(mounted_as) # person.avatar (File instance)
#md5 ||= Digest::MD5.hexdigest(uploaded_file.read) # hexdigest of file content
end
end