Module: ActiveModel::AttributeMethods

Extended by:

ActiveSupport::Concern

Included in:

Dirty

Defined in:

lib/active_model/attribute_methods.rb

Overview

Active Model Attribute Methods

ActiveModel::AttributeMethods provides a way to add prefixes and suffixes to your methods as well as handling the creation of Active Record like class methods such as table_name.

The requirements to implement ActiveModel::AttributeMethods are to:

• include ActiveModel::AttributeMethods in your object

• Call each Attribute Method module method you want to add, such as attribute_method_suffix or attribute_method_prefix

• Call define_attribute_methods after the other methods are called.

• Define the various generic _attribute methods that you have declared

A minimal implementation could be:

class Person
  include ActiveModel::AttributeMethods

  attribute_method_affix  :prefix => 'reset_', :suffix => '_to_default!'
  attribute_method_suffix '_contrived?'
  attribute_method_prefix 'clear_'
  define_attribute_methods ['name']

  attr_accessor :name

  private

  def attribute_contrived?(attr)
    true
  end

  def clear_attribute(attr)
    send("#{attr}=", nil)
  end

  def reset_attribute_to_default!(attr)
    send("#{attr}=", "Default Name")
  end
end

Note that whenever you include ActiveModel::AttributeMethods in your class, it requires you to implement an attributes method which returns a hash with each attribute name in your model as hash key and the attribute value as hash value.

Hash keys must be strings.

Defined Under Namespace

Modules: ClassMethods

Instance Method Summary

• #method_missing(method_id, *args, &block) ⇒ Object

  Allows access to the object attributes, which are held in the @attributes hash, as though they were first-class methods.

• #respond_to?(method, include_private_methods = false) ⇒ Boolean
• #respond_to_without_attributes? ⇒ Object

  A Person object with a name attribute can ask person.respond_to?(:name), person.respond_to?(:name=), and person.respond_to?(:name?) which will all return true.

Dynamic Method Handling

This class handles dynamic methods through the method_missing method

#method_missing(method_id, *args, &block) ⇒ Object

Allows access to the object attributes, which are held in the @attributes hash, as though they were first-class methods. So a Person class with a name attribute can use Person#name and Person#name= and never directly use the attributes hash – except for multiple assigns with ActiveRecord#attributes=. A Milestone class can also ask Milestone#completed? to test that the completed attribute is not nil or 0.

It’s also possible to instantiate related objects, so a Client class belonging to the clients table with a master_id foreign key can instantiate master through Client#master.

# File 'lib/active_model/attribute_methods.rb', line 358

def method_missing(method_id, *args, &block)
  method_name = method_id.to_s
  if match = match_attribute_method?(method_name)
    guard_private_attribute_method!(method_name, args)
    return __send__(match.target, match.attr_name, *args, &block)
  end
  super
end

Instance Method Details

#respond_to?(method, include_private_methods = false) ⇒ Boolean

Returns:

• (Boolean)

# File 'lib/active_model/attribute_methods.rb', line 371

def respond_to?(method, include_private_methods = false)
  if super
    return true
  elsif !include_private_methods && super(method, true)
    # If we're here then we haven't found among non-private methods
    # but found among all methods. Which means that the given method is private.
    return false
  elsif match_attribute_method?(method.to_s)
    return true
  end
  super
end

#respond_to_without_attributes? ⇒ Object

A Person object with a name attribute can ask person.respond_to?(:name), person.respond_to?(:name=), and person.respond_to?(:name?) which will all return true.

# File 'lib/active_model/attribute_methods.rb', line 370

alias :respond_to_without_attributes? :respond_to?