associate_by

This gem helps you associate two objects using a specified field.

WARNING: This gem only works with Rails 3. It might work with Rails 2, but I haven't tried it.

Example:

class Category < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :products
  associate_by :products, :name
end

class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :category
  associate_by :category, :name
end

You could associate a Product with a Category using the product name in a Category instance, or using the Category name on a Product instance.

It is not necessary to use it on both models.

Instalation

Rails 3

Add the gem to your Gemfile

gem 'associate_by', '>=0.1.1'

Install using bundle

bundle install

Usage

The parent class must have an association to the children class.

Just add to your parent class the following line:

associate_by :product, :name

This code will create two instance methods on the Category object, product_name and product_name=

You can also include a :create option and the gem will create the associated object if it doesn't exist.

class Category < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :products
  associate_by :products, :name
end

class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :category
  associate_by :category, :name, :create
end

p = Product.create(:name => 'A New Product')
p.category_name = 'A New Category'

In this example, if the Category doesn't exist yet, it will be created

The writer

If we had the example we mentioned earlier, we're telling the gem that we want to associate the Product with the Category using the Product name.

Example: c = Category.create(:name => "Parent") p = Product.create(:name => "Child")

c.product_name = "Child"

It will associate the Category with the Product so,

c.products #=> [p]

The reader

belongs_to

If the association is not an one-to-many association, it returns the value of the parent object, so:

Given that,

c = Category.create(:name => "Parent")
p = Product.create(:name => "Child")

p.category = c

Then,

p.category_name #=> "Parent"

If you have it defined on both moder

has_many, habtm

In this case, the reader always returns an empty string, so

Given that,

c = Category.create(:name => "Parent")
p = Product.create(:name => "Child")

p.category = c

Then,

c.product_name #=> ""

Always.

Why?

Think about a typical CRUD, where you click on "New Something", then you're taken to a form, you fill the form, click the "Create" button, then you're taking to the show action, and so on.

If you have a lot of catalogs in your app, that are only used to store one field, typically, just a name, then, it's going to be hell for the user to set up new values.

From a usability perspective, it would be nicer if the index page just showed a text field with a "Create" button and you could quickly create new items for the list.

This plays very well with a form, specially for create situations.

form_for @product do |f|
  f.text_field :category_name
  f.submit 'Create'

Pour some autocomplete into the mix and you will end up with a very easy way to fill your catalogs.

Todo

• Handle errors via Rails, for example, when the associated object doesn't exist and :create => false
• The writer for the x-to-many associations can receive an array like: category.products = ["Product 1", "Product 2", "Product 3"]
• Make it more semantic, like: associate_with :product, :by => :name
• Finish this document