HashAccessor

This gem provides similar functionality to Rails’ new ActiveAttr, except with a bunch of powerful methods behind it. Type definitions, defaults, lambdas on arrays, and more.

The purpose behind building HashAccessor was to be able to quickly add/modify/remove variables being stored in a serialized hash of a rails model. This is very useful if you have a large list of often changing variables on a model which don’t get queried against. You can create new variables without messing up your DB. Storing account configurations or custom themes is a common scenario.

This gem was designed to have HTML forms update directly to the hash, but maintain the correct class (respecting :attr_accessible of course). Options like :default, :type, and :collects are particularly helpful when dealing with forms.

Installation

In your Gemfile:

gem "hash_accessor"

Then run:

bundle install

Usage

You define each accessor you want to be stored inside the serialized hash

hash_accessor NAME_OF_HASH, NAME_OF_VARIABLE, options

Here is an example:

class MyModel < ActiveRecord::Base
  serialize :options, Hash

  hash_accessor :options, :currency, :default => "$USD"
  hash_accessor :options, :display_currency_on_invoices, :type => :boolean, :default => true
  hash_accessor :options, :invoice_due_date_net, :type => :integer, :default => 3

  def some_method

    self.currency = "$CAD"

    display_currency_on_invoices?

    ...
  end

end

Valid Options:

:default - if undefined, this plugin will create an empty instance of the defined type or null

:type - defaults to :string. Can also be :integer, :float, :decimal, :boolean, or :array

For Arrays only:

:collects - only runs on arrays. Calls the lambda method on each item in the array before saving

:reject_blanks - removes all blank elements after the collect method. This with :collects can be used together for storing a list of ids stored as checkboxes in a form.

Contributing & Reporting Issues

While I can’t promise the most speedy response, I do plan to continue to maintain this gem. Please feel free to report any issues, provide feedback, or make suggestions on the Issue Tracker