Works Cited

Works Cited allows you to add a list of the works cited in ActiveRecord objects, to be formatted by a helper that can be added to relevant pages to format the citations like a bibliography.

Works Cited uses CanCanCan to authorize the editing of citations. This makes it easy for you to control access.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'works_cited'

And then execute:

$ bundle install

Then generate the migrations

$ rake works_cited:install:migrations
$ rake db:migrate

Configuration

You will need to add access for the people who should be authorized. Works Cited uses CanCanCan for authorization. Simply add the appropriate permissions to your ability.rb file:

class Ability
  include CanCan::Ability

  def initialize(user)
    user ||= User.new

    can :list, WorksCited::Citation
    can :list, WorksCited::Contributor

    return if user.new_record? # Anonymous Users leave

    can :read, WorksCited::Citation
    can :read, WorksCited::Contributor
    # # We could have other rules in here, like:
    # can :manage, WorksCited::Citation, record: { user_id: user.id }
    # can :manage, WorksCited::Contributor, record: { user_id: user.id }

    return unless user.admin? # Non Admin Users leave

    can :select, :all
    can :manage, WorksCited::Citation
    can :manage, WorksCited::Contributor
  end
end

You may wish to add custom contributor roles or citation types. To do that, add something like the following to config/initializers/works_cited.rb:

WorksCited.configure do |config|
  # This will dynamically generate a scope (.astrologians) and a boolean check (#astrologian?)
  # on WorksCited::Contributor
  config.valid_contributor_roles << 'astrologian'

  # This will dynamically generate a scope (.star_charts) and a boolean check (#star_chart?)
  # on WorksCited::Citation
  #
  # If you want to override the default view for any new (or existing) types:
  # List a citation: app/views/works_cited/citation_types/citation/_star_chart.html.[haml/erb]
  # Add/Edit a citation: app/views/works_cited/citation_types/fields/_star_chart.html.[haml/erb]
  config.valid_citation_types << 'star_chart'
end

Usage

Make a model ready to accept citations

has_works_cited

Add the helpers to the relevant views

= works_cited_list @record

To add routes so that you can edit citations on their own pages:

  mount WorksCited::Engine => '/works_cited'

To add the fields, nested inside your forms

= form_for(@doodad) do |f|
  = works_cited_citations_fields f

Don't forget to add the controller concern to enable nested attributes with strong parameters

class RecipesController < ApplicationController
  include Cookbook::Params

  #...

  def recipe_params
    params.require(:doodad).permit(:name, :description, works_cited_params)
  end
end

Contributing

  • Check out the latest master to make sure the feature hasn't been implemented or the bug hasn't been fixed yet.
  • Check out the issue tracker to make sure someone already hasn't requested it and/or contributed it.
  • Fork the project.
  • Start a feature/bugfix branch.
  • Commit and push until you are happy with your contribution.
  • Make sure to add tests for it. This is important so I don't break it in a future version unintentionally.
  • Please try not to mess with the Rakefile, version, or history. If you want to have your own version, or is otherwise necessary, that is fine, but please isolate to its own commit so I can cherry-pick around it.

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Loren Lundgren. See LICENSE.txt for further details.