new :zero option to help with web forms that don't like creating empty arrays

[spemmons]

includes full tests and docs...

bonus: adjusted class-level "bitmask_for_attribute(*values)" method to discard blank? values like the setter

[joelmoss]

I am not convinced that this is needed. It is actually simpler to use in the controller action:

params[:some_attribute] ||= []

And it's actually more obvious about what it is doing.

[spemmons]

sorry, if i jumped the gun

actually, that's the default behavior

this turns out to be useful in a few other ways, such as explicitly setting all bits to zero from the form without explicit handling in the controller for the condition

in my case i have a web form that has a simple vs. advanced view -- the bitmask checkboxes are in the advanced view -- if they are not present in the post, that means i don't want to set them, not that i want them to be reset to zero -- this techniques allows me to control whether or not i want the attributes included in the update very easily

[joelmoss]

No you haven't jumped the gun. This is exactly how pull requests should be submitted - well tested, documented code. Good job!

I actually see what you mean about your last example. I think the :zero option needs to be more descriptive though. :zero doesn't tell me anything about what the option does.

[spemmons]

we could change that pretty easily...

some other ideas i had were: zero_value or zero_symbol...

based on my description, do another name come to mind?

[joelmoss]

zero_value sounds good