RecordWithOperator

Introduction

RecordWithOperator is a rails plugin that makes your all active record models to be saved or logically deleted with created_by, updated_by, deleted_by automatically. Also it makes creator, updater, deleter association (belongs_to) if the class has created_by, updated_by, deleted_by.

You need to set ‘operator’ (it may be an User object) to your model object at first. Once you have set an operator, it will be copied to objects in the association collection, so it might be enough to set an operator per request. Operators are also useful for your access control features on model’s side. To set an operator, simply use operator= or get objects by find method with :for option.

The logical deletion function itself is out of this plugin’s scope. This plugin assumes that the logical deletion is kicked by record.destory.

Installation

gem install nay-record_with_operator --source http://gems.github.com

Or, you can install it in vender/plugins.

> ./script/plugin install git://github.com/nay/record_with_operator.git

Rails Configration

In config/environment.rb:

Rails::Initializer.run do |config|
  config.gem 'nay-record_with_operator', :lib => 'record_with_operator',
    :source => 'http://gems.github.com'
end

Example

Create a new note object with current_user:

note = Note.create(:body => "This is my first note.", :operator => current_user)
# note.operator will be current_user
# note.created_by will be current_user.id

Get note objects with current_user:

notes = Note.find(:all, :for => current_user)
# notes.first.operator will be current_user
# notes.find_by_body("This is my first note.").operator will be current_user

Create note’s comments:

note = Note.find(params[:id], :for => current_user)
note.comments.create!(:body => params[:comment_body])
# comment's operator will be automatically set and used as created_by

Configuration

You can change the operator’s class name by setting RecordWithOperator.config. The default is ‘User’. Note that it is required to change the value before the model’s creator/updater/deleter is firstly called. For example, you can write the code under config/initializers.

RecordWithOperator.config[:user_class_name] = "AdminUser"

It’s also possible to modify options for creator/updater/deleter associations. For example, in the case you use acts_as_paranoid and want to get creator/updater/deleter even if they are deleted, the configuration will be look like this.

RecordWithOperator.config[:operator_association_options] = {:with_deleted => true}