as per Initialize max value in Ruby on Rails ActiveRecord, automagically

Initialize max value in Fat Controller

class ItemController < ApplicationController
 ....    
  # GET /items/new
  # GET /items/new.xml
  def new
    @item= Item.new
    @item.display_order = get_new_item_display_order
    
    respond_to do |format|
      format.html # new.html.erb
      format.xml { render :xml => @item}
    end
  end
...
  private
...
    def get_new_item_display_order
      max_value = Item.maximum('display_order')
      max_value = 0 if max_value.nil?
      max_value += 1
   end

as explained in http://www.falsepositives.com/index.php/2010/08/23/initialize-max-value-in-ruby-on-rails-activerecord-automagically/ Initialize max value in Ruby on Rails ActiveRecord, automagically

as per http://www.falsepositives.com/index.php/2010/08/23/initialize-max-value-in-ruby-on-rails-activerecord-automagically/ Initialize max value in Ruby on Rails ActiveRecord, automagically