README.md

acts_as_exportable

• http://github.com/cesario/exportable

Description / Usage:

exportable is an easy way to export a collection using a predefined format. Using an ORM (say ActiveRecord), one would do:

models/banana.rb

class Banana # Attributes :size, :color

# Export class method
# Banana.export / Banana.export([1, 2, 4, 8])
def self.export_as_csv(ids = nil)
  objs = ids.nil? where("id in (?)",ids) : all
  objs.each do |obj|
    obj.export_as_csv
  end
end

# Export instance method
def export_as_csv
  # your logic here
end

end

controllers/banana_controller.rb

... Banana.export_as_csv([1,2,4,8]) ...

... and this for each and every class, and for each and every export format.

With exportable, you will be handling pure Ruby objects and be able to share the export format across multiple classes without any probme.

lib/simple_export.rb

require 'exportable' module SimpleExport include Exportable

exportable :as => :simple_export, :using => :csv do
  header    :column_names
  column_separator ';'
  row_separator '\n'

  columns :size  => "Size",
          :color  => "Color"
  end
end

end

models/banana.rb

Model left clean

class Banana # Same attributes :size, :color end

controllers/some_controller.rb

... fruits = [ banana1, banana2, some_other_fruit_responding_to_size_and_color ] fruits.export(:simple_export) fruits.simple_export

The :as argument becomes an instance method of any Array object. You could either use myArray.export(:export_name_provided) or just myArray.export_name_provided

Known issue

• Early release: Not fully featured yet!
• CSV extension: Internally, a Hash is used to store the list of columns to export. With Ruby 1.8, the Hashes are not sorted, so you will have to rely on the header record which states the actual attribute order. With 1.9 and sorted Hashes, the order is respected.

Requirements:

• Ruby 1.8.*
• None yet

INSTALL:

• gem install exportable