lib/symbolize.rb @@ -1,13 +1,57 @@ -ActiverecordSymbolize -===================== += Symbolize attribute values in ActiveRecord (e.g. for nicer enums) -Introduction goes here. +This plugin introduces an easy way to use symbols for values of ActiveRecord +attributes. Symbolized attributes return a ruby symbol (or nil) as their value +and can be set using symbols. +== About -Example -======= +Since ActiveRecord does not natively support database column types of ENUM or +SET, you'll usually use a string attribute and restrict it to certain values +with validations. Using this plugin, the values of such pseudo-enums are +symbols, which look more ruby-style than strings. -Example goes here. +Simply add "symbolize :attr_name" to your model class, and the specified +attribute will return symbol values and can be set using smbols (setting +string values will still work, which is important when using forms). + +An attribute to symbolize should be a string (varchar) column in the database. + +Blog: http://zargony.com/ +Github: http://github.com/zargony/activerecord_symbolize + +== Install + + ./script/plugin install git://github.com/zargony/activerecord_symbolize.git + +== Usage + +Add "symbolize :attr_name" to your model class. You may also want to add +validates_inclusion_of to restrict the possible values (just like an enum). + + class User < ActiveRecord::Base + symbolize :gender + validates_inclusion_of :gender, :in => [:female, :male] + end + +== Examples + + u = User.find_by_name('Anna') # => #<User Anna> + u.gender # => :female + + u = User.find_by_gender(:male) # => #<User Bob> + u.gender # => :male + + u = User.find(:all, :conditions => { :gender => :female }) + + u = User.new(:name => 'ET', :gender => :unknown) + u.save # => validation fails + +== Notes + +I've been using this for quite some time and made it a rails plugin now. More +background iinformation can be found at +http://zargony.com/2007/09/07/symbolize-attribute-values-in-activerecord Copyright (c) 2007-2008 Andreas Neuhaus, released under the MIT license README @@ -1 +1 @@ -# Include hook code here +ActiveRecord::Base.send(:include, Symbolize) init.rb lib/activerecord_symbolize.rb 9eb834b9ad02b3d9cbe6b1d97bdfe657789fe13c Andreas Neuhaus zargony@zargony.com http://github.com/zargony/activerecord_symbolize/commit/6213779989f2cc5c344addca4953877b1178fe1f 6213779989f2cc5c344addca4953877b1178fe1f 2008-04-16T09:28:13-07:00 2008-04-16T09:28:13-07:00 Added code from http://zargony.com/2007/09/07/symbolize-attribute-values-in-activerecord to this plugin and created a README 50a62b0105cda614082e697e7b915ac5b58ef94a Andreas Neuhaus zargony@zargony.com