Magic Meta Methods plugin

Plugin details

A plugin to generate many methods or "attributes" on ActiveRecord that persists data into a serialized text based column as defined by :column. This plugin is particularly useful for storing display data or meta data that isn't intended to be queried directly via SQL. It reduces the number of "one-off" columns and the clutter of serialized declarations with getter/setters on your model.

Websitehttp://github.com/techwhizbang/magic_meta_methods Repositorygit://github.com/techwhizbang/magic_meta_methods.git Author Nick Zalabak Tags attribute LicenseMIT

Documentation

Install the plugin: 
ruby script/plugin install git://github.com/techwhizbang/magic_meta_methods.git

Prepare database
----------------------------

Add this migration to the desired table(s): 

  class MagicMetaMethods < ActiveRecord::Migration
    def self.up
      add_column :your_table_here, :magic_meta_methods, :mediumtext
    end

    def self.down
      remove_column :your_table_here, :magic_meta_methods
    end
  end



  rake db:migrate


Meta Magic Methods in action
--------------------------------------------

Let's suppose your model needs to store a variety of data and types 

  class YourModel < ActiveRecord::Base
    magic_meta_methods([:a_string,
                       [:a_hash, :hash],
                       [:hours, :array],
                       [:cats, :indifferent_hash]], :column => 'alternate_meta')
  end


We can now use the magic meta methods just like a regular attribute setter 

  m = YourModel.new
  m.newsletter_signup = "yes"
  m.random_stuff = {:a => 1, :b => 2, :c => 3}
  m.hours_operation = [["Monday", "9-5"], ["Tuesday", "9-5"], ["Wed", "Closed"]]
  m.pets = {:sparky => "dog", :pinky => "cat"}
  m.save


You can retrieve the values 

  p.pets['sparky']
  p.random_stuff[:a]
  p.newsletter_signup

Further Documentation

There is currently no advanced documentation for this plugin.

New documentation

Edit plugin | (0 older versions) | Last edited by: hardway, about 1 year ago