Add informal_model_name feature

README.md

@@ -60,6 +60,31 @@ Make your own `#initialize` method, and in that you can assign the attributes
 using the `#attributes=` method and also call super with whatever args are
 needed.
 
+## Overriding the `model_name`
+
+If you name your model `InformalCommand`, form params get passed to your controller
+in the `params[:informal_command]` hash. As that's a bit ugly and perhaps doesn't
+play well with standing in for a real ActiveRecord model, Informal provides a
+method to override the model name.
+
+    class InformalCommand
+      informal_model_name "Command"
+      # ...
+    end
+
+Note: the `informal_model_name` feature is available only in Rails 3.1 or greater
+(unless somebody back-ports the required API change to 3.0.x).
+
+## Idiosyncrasies
+
+The standard way that Rails generates ids for new records is to name them like
+`command_new`, as opposed to `command_17` for persisted records. I've found that
+when using informal models I often want more than one per page, and it's helpful
+to have a unique id for JavaScript to use. Therefore Informal uses the model's
+`object_id` to get a unique id for the record. Those ids in the DOM will look like
+`command_2157193640`, which would be scary if you did anything with those memory
+addresses except use them for attaching scripts.
+
 ## License
 
-Released under the MIT License.  See the LICENSE file.
+Copyright © 2011 Josh Susser. Released under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file.

informal.gemspec

@@ -20,4 +20,6 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |s|
   s.require_paths = ["lib"]
 
   s.add_dependency('activemodel', "~> 3.0")
+  # s.add_dependency('activemodel', "~> 3.0.0")     # to test w/o 3.1 only features
+  # s.add_dependency('activemodel', "~> 3.1.0.rc4") # to test 3.1 only features, ex: informal_model_name
 end

lib/informal/model_no_init.rb

@@ -5,6 +5,15 @@ def self.included(klass)
       klass.class_eval do
         extend  ActiveModel::Naming
         include ActiveModel::Validations
+        extend  ClassMethods
+      end
+    end
+
+    module ClassMethods
+      if ActiveModel::VERSION::MINOR > 0
+        def informal_model_name(name)
+          @_model_name = ActiveModel::Name.new(self, nil, name)
+        end
       end
     end
 

test/model_test_cases.rb

@@ -5,6 +5,10 @@ def setup
     @model = self.poro_class.new(:x => 1, :y => 2)
   end
 
+  def teardown
+    self.poro_class.instance_variable_set(:@_model_name, nil)
+  end
+
   def test_new
     assert_equal 1, @model.x
     assert_equal 2, @model.y
@@ -31,6 +35,13 @@ def test_naming
     assert_equal "Poro", @model.class.model_name.human
   end
 
+  if ActiveModel::VERSION::MINOR > 0
+    def test_model_name_override
+      self.poro_class.informal_model_name("Alias")
+      assert_equal "Alias", @model.class.model_name.human
+    end
+  end
+
   def test_validations
     assert @model.invalid?
     assert_equal [], @model.errors[:x]