A simple and readable alternative to update_all({:x=>y}, :id=>id)

Usage

User.update_one(id, :name=>'Pete')

Code

clas ActiveRecord::Base
  def self.update_one(id, attributes)
    update_all(attributes, :id => id)
  end
end

ActiveRecord`s validate_uniqueness_of produces evil SQL that will not use your existing index!

Before:
SELECT `users`.id FROM `users` WHERE `users`.`email` = BINARY ‘my@email.com’ AND `users`.id 1234) LIMIT 1; –> 0.80s

After:
SELECT `users`.id FROM `users` WHERE `users`.`email` = ‘my@email.com’ AND `users`.id 1234) LIMIT 1; –> 0.00s

Hack to make AR use faster queries on the cost that no case-sensitive queries can be made anymore.

# validates_uniqueness_of produces "column = BINARY 'text'" queries
# which will not use existing indices, so we add this 
# EVIL HACK to make 
# ALL validates_uniqueness_of in-case-sensitive
class ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::MysqlAdapter
  def case_sensitive_equality_operator
    "="
  end
end

When updating to 2.3.4 I noticed that touch is
no longer a simple ‘update :updated_at’, but a save!,
which caused some code to break
(e.g. touch`ing in after_save == loop)

Usage

User.first.touch_without_callbacks
User.touch_without_callbacks([User.first.id, User.last.id])

Install
Paste somewhere…

# Provide .touch as it was in 2.3.2, simply update the :updated_at field.
class ActiveRecord::Base
  def touch_without_callbacks
    now = Time.now.utc
    self.class.touch_without_callbacks(id, now)
    self.updated_at = now
  end

  def self.touch_without_callbacks(ids, time=Time.now.utc)
    update_all({:updated_at=>time}, :id=>ids)
  end
end