VirtualAttributes

• https://github.com/daemon/virtual_attributes

DESCRIPTION

Usually you can use attr_accessor to define virtual attribute. You could even use attr_accessor_with_default to set default value.

But in any case you are unable to typecast values.

Let's assume you receive data from form submit.

> params[:user].inspect
=> {'enabled' => 'true', 'priority' => '0.5'}

Having attributes defined as table columns values would be actual true and 0.5.

But with attr_accessor fields will still be strings.

This is what virtual_attribute handles.

Origins

Inspired with virtual_attribute gem by Philip Roberts I tried to use ActiveRecord to typecast.

Usage

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  virtual_attribute :enabled,  :type => :boolean, :default => false
  virtual_attribute :priority, :type => :float,   :default => 1.0
end