acts_as_togglable

Named bang toggle methods for ActiveRecord boolean attributes.

Instead of user.toggle!(:admin) (which bypasses validations), get clean named methods like user.admin! that run validations and callbacks.

Installation

Add to your Gemfile:

gem "acts_as_togglable"

Usage

Explicit mode

Specify which boolean attributes get bang methods:

class User < ApplicationRecord
  acts_as_togglable :admin, :active
end

user = User.create(admin: false, active: true)
user.admin!   # => true  (toggled and saved)
user.active!  # => false (toggled and saved)
user.admin!   # => false (toggled back)

Auto mode

Generate bang methods for all boolean columns:

class Post < ApplicationRecord
  acts_as_togglable
end

post = Post.create(published: false, featured: true)
post.published!  # => true
post.featured!   # => false

How it works

Each bang method:

• Toggles the boolean value
• Saves with update! (runs validations and callbacks)
• Returns the new boolean value
• Raises ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid if validations fail

Why not just use toggle!?

Rails' built-in toggle! bypasses validations and callbacks. This matters when your app depends on them.

For example, a blog post that updates the sitemap when published:

class Post < ApplicationRecord
  acts_as_togglable :published

  after_save :update_sitemap, if: :published?

  private

  def update_sitemap
    SitemapGenerator.rebuild
  end
end

# With toggle! — callback is SKIPPED, sitemap not updated
post.toggle!(:published)

# With acts_as_togglable — callback fires, sitemap updated
post.published!

Other cases where callbacks and validations matter:

• Sending a welcome email when a user is activated
• Logging an audit trail when permissions change
• Validating that only one post can be featured at a time

Comparison with Rails toggle!

	acts_as_togglable	Rails toggle!
Syntax	user.admin!	user.toggle!(:admin)
Validations	Runs	Bypassed
Callbacks	Runs	Bypassed
Return value	New boolean	true

License

MIT