ActsAsOptionable

Warning I don’t recommend using this yet since I’m going to make a couple core changes shortly. Very alpha.

Support to add options, as well as specify default options, to ActiveRecord models. It’s currently a very basic approach, and allows you to fetch options from an ActiveRecord model via an association, or via a hash or object where options are callable as methods. It doesn’t support any advanced finder options.

It works by creating an options table which is polymorphic to ActiveRecord models which call acts_as_optionable.

The plugin also grants the ability to specify default options for a class, or pass in defaults to an instance at runtime.

Installation

Available as a gem:

gem install acts-as-optionable

Post Installation

This creates an Option model in you app.

script/generate option
rake db:migrate

Usage

Adding options to a model

class Style < ActiveRecord::Base
  acts_as_optionable
end

Setting, getting, and deleting options

Use #get_option, #set_option, and #delete_option for interacting with options.

style = Style.create
style.set_option("color", "red")
style.get_option("color").value => "red"
style.delete_option("color")
style.get_option("color") => nil

You can also store an optional “kind” attribute as a hint to what you are storing:

style.set_option("bgcolor", "white", :kind => "color")
style.get_option("bgcolor").kind => "color"

Add a “category” if you want to group options:

style.set_option("bgcolor", "white", :category => "colors")
style.get_option("bgcolor").category => "colors"

You can also store an optional display name for human consumption:

style.set_option("bgcolor", "white", :display_name => "Background Color")
style.get_option("bgcolor").display_name => "Background Color"

Specifying default options at the class level

class StyleWithDefaults < ActiveRecord::Base
  acts_as_optionable

  specify_option :background_color, :default => "white", :kind => "color", :category => "background"
  specify_option :color, :default => "black"
end

style = StyleWithDefaults.create
style.get_option("background_color").value => "white"
style.get_option("background_color").kind => "color"
style.get_option("background_color").category => "background"

Specifying instance options at runtime

style.instance_specified_options = { :foo => {:default => "FOO"} }
style.get_option("foo").value => "FOO"

Persisting options specific to a record

You can persist numeric, boolean, or string values for storage.

style.set_option("color", "red")
style.get_option("color").value => "red"

style.set_option("active", false)
style.get_option("active").value => false

style.set_option("max_time", 3600)
style.get_option("max_time").value => 3600

Option precedence

Options are preferred in the following order:

Stored options specific for this record
Runtime options provided to the instance
Class options specified at load time.

Example:

class StyleWithDefaults < ActiveRecord::Base
  acts_as_optionable

  specify_option :background_color, :default => "white"
  specify_option :color, :default => "black"
end

style = StyleWithDefaults.create
style.instance_specified_options = { :color => { :default => "green" } }
style.get_option("background_color").value => "white"
style.get_option("color").value => "green"
style.set_option("color", "blue")
style.get_option("color").value => "blue"

Easy options and values retrieval

Use #options_values_struct to grab a struct to allow for method based calls for all default and set options:

style = StyleWithDefaults.create
options = style.options_values_struct
options.color => "black"

This is useful, for instance, for passing a set of options into a liquid template.

TODO

Thinking about finding a way to optionally associate the option with an asset table. This would be useful for allowing user defined stylesheet options referencing S3 assets.
Add in a way to return an option value straight away.
Assign multiple settings at a time.