ConstantsInDb (for RoR 2.3.5 and above)
=======================================

This plugin allows you to use some active record model instances as constants, and give a way to
 - load and update AR constants at runtime
 - manage AR constants through seeds files


Example
=======

To load constants stored in db at runtime, add the following code to your AR models :


class Exemple < ActiveRecord::Base

  cache_constants :name

end

where name is a string attribute of the ActiveRecord model Exemple, used as unique key to instanciate the Exemple's constants



To manage your constants thanks to seeds, build up the following subdirectory architecture in the "db" directory :


db
|_ seeds
|     |_ common
|     |     |_ seeds_file_1.yml
|     |     |_ seeds_file_2.yml
|     |     |_ ..
|     |
|     |_ development
|     |     |_ seeds_file_1.yml
|     |
|     |_ test
|
|_ seeds.rb

Under the seeds directory, create one directory by environment, and a "common" directory, which is used by default to load seeds

In seeds.rb, you'll then be able to instanciate and save your seeds as follow :

#seeds.rb

seeds = Seeds.new    => Load all seeds files found in seeds sub-directories
seeds.load_data      => Load all data without overriding the values for data allready stored in db
seeds.save           => pass the save method to all data previously loaded

or

seeds = Seeds.new(:only => :seeds_file_1) => only load seeds_file_1.yml
seeds.load_data(:override => true)        => override data values with seeds values
seeds.save!                               => pass the save! method to all data previously loaded

or

seeds = Seeds.new(:except => :seeds_file_1) => don't load seeds_file_1.yml
seeds.load_data(:override => true)
seeds.save!                                 


TODO
====

* restrict options should take class names to fully handle STI models
* write a generator to build default seeds directories architecture
* gemmify the plugin
* rails 3 testing



Copyright (c) 2010 webflows, released under the MIT license