Fetching only the first record in the table (via the view) without changing controller?

Question

I am trying to only fetch the first record in my table for display. I am creating a site where a user can upload multiple images and attach to a post but I only want to display the first image view for each post.

For further clarification posts belong_to projects. So when you are on the projects show page you see multiple posts. In this view I only want to display the first image for each post. Is there a way to do this in the view without affecting the controller (as later I want to allow users to browse all photos through the addition of a lightbox). Here is my /views/posts/_post.html.erb code:

<% div_for post do %>

    <% post.photos.each do | photo | %>

        <%= image_tag(photo.data.url(:large), :alt => '') %>
        <%= photo.description %>
    <% end unless post.photos.first.new_record? rescue nil %>

        <%= link_to h(post.link_title), post.link %>
        <%=  h(post.description) %>

        <%= link_to 'Manage this post', edit_post_path(post) %> 

<% end %>

UPDATE: I am using a photos model to attach multiple photos to each post and using paperclip here.

Answer 1

either of these should work?

post.photos.find(:first)

or 

post.photos.first

EDIT: I think the revised code would look like this?

<% div_for post do %>
    <% photo = post.photos.first %>

    <%= image_tag(photo.data.url(:large), :alt => '') %>
    <%= photo.description %>

    <%= link_to h(post.link_title), post.link %>
    <%=  h(post.description) %>

    <%= link_to 'Manage this post', edit_post_path(post) %> 
<% end %>