Module: Invoicing::ClassInfo

Defined in:
lib/invoicing/class_info.rb

Overview

This module is intended for use only internally within this framework. It implements a pattern needed in several other modules: an acts_as_something_or_other method can be called within the scope of an ActiveRecord class, given a number of arguments; including options which define how columns are renamed in a given model object. The information from these arguments needs to be stored in a class variable for later use in instances of that class. It must be possible to call the acts_as_ method multiple times, combining the arguments from the various calls, to make the whole thing look nicely declarative. Subclasses should inherit acts_as_ arguments from their superclass, but should be able to override them with their own values.

This pattern assumes a particular module structure, like the following:

module MyNamespace                    # you may use arbitrarily nested modules for namespacing (optional)
  module Teleporter                   # the name of this module defines auto-generated method names
    module ActMethods
      def acts_as_teleporter(*args)   # should be called "acts_as_#{module_name.underscore}"
        Invoicing::ClassInfo.acts_as(MyNamespace::Teleporter, self, args)
      end
    end

    def transmogrify_the_instance     # will become an instance method of the class on which the
      info = teleporter_class_info    # acts_as_ method is called.
      info.do_transmogrify
    end

    module ClassMethods
      def transmogrify_the_class      # will become a class method of the class on which the
        info = teleporter_class_info  # acts_as_ method is called.
        info.do_transmogrify
      end
    end

    class ClassInfo < Invoicing::ClassInfo::Base
      def do_transmogrify
        case all_options[:transmogrification]
          when :total then "Transmogrified by #{all_args.first}"
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

ActiveRecord::Base.send(:extend, MyNamespace::Teleporter::ActMethods)

ClassInfo is used to store and process the arguments passed to the acts_as_teleporter method when it is called in the scope of an ActiveRecord model class. Finally, the feature defined by the Teleporter module above can be used like this:

class Teleporter < ActiveRecord::Base
  acts_as_teleporter 'Zoom2020', :transmogrification => :total
end

Teleporter.transmogrify_the_class               # both return "Transmogrified by Zoom2020"
Teleporter.find(42).transmogrify_the_instance

Defined Under Namespace

Classes: Base

Class Method Summary collapse

Class Method Details

.acts_as(source_module, calling_class, args) ⇒ Object

Provides the main implementation pattern for an acts_as_ method. See the example above for usage.

source_module

The module object which is using the ClassInfo pattern

calling_class

The class in whose scope the acts_as_ method was called

args

The array of arguments (including options hash) to the acts_as_ method



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# File 'lib/invoicing/class_info.rb', line 64

def self.acts_as(source_module, calling_class, args)
  # The name by which the particular module using ClassInfo is known
  module_name = source_module.name.split('::').last.underscore
  class_info_method = "#{module_name}_class_info"

  previous_info =
    if calling_class.respond_to?(class_info_method, true)
      # acts_as has been called before on the same class, or a superclass
      calling_class.send(class_info_method) || calling_class.superclass.send(class_info_method)
    else
      # acts_as is being called for the first time -- do the mixins!
      calling_class.send(:include, source_module)
      nil # no previous_info
    end

  # Instantiate the ClassInfo::Base subclass and assign it to an instance variable in calling_class
  class_info_class = source_module.const_get('ClassInfo')
  class_info = class_info_class.new(calling_class, previous_info, args)
  calling_class.instance_variable_set("@#{class_info_method}", class_info)

  # Define a getter class method on calling_class through which the ClassInfo::Base
  # instance can be accessed.
  calling_class.class_eval <<-CLASSEVAL
    class << self
      def #{class_info_method}
        if superclass.respond_to?("#{class_info_method}", true)
          @#{class_info_method} ||= superclass.send("#{class_info_method}")
        end
        @#{class_info_method}
      end
      private "#{class_info_method}"
    end
  CLASSEVAL

  # For convenience, also define an instance method which does the same as the class method
  calling_class.class_eval do
    define_method class_info_method do
      self.class.send(class_info_method)
    end
    private class_info_method
  end
end