Boxey provides the [] element reference operator to ActiveRecord classes.
Add this line to your Gemfile:
gem 'boxey'
With the boxey gem installed, all ActiveRecord classes gain the [] method.
By default, [] fetches by the class's primary_key and any other fields that are validated by uniqueness (unless the validation has if conditions).
Optionally, you may explicitly specify the fields to query and their relative priority by calling the boxey method.
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
boxey :id, :login, :email
validates :login, uniqueness: true
validates :email, uniqueness: true
end
Given the configuration above:
User[1] returns the User with an id of 1.
User['me@example.com'] returns the User with an email of 'me@example.com'.
[] returns nil if no match is found.