I need some help with virtual attributes. This code works fine but how do I use it inside a plugin. The goal is to add this methods to all classes that uses the plugin.
class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessor :title, :permalink
def title
if @title
@title
elsif self.page
self.page.title
else
""
end
end
def permalink
if @permalink
@permalink
elsif self.page
self.page.permalink
else
""
end
end
end
Thanks
You can run the plugin generator to get started.
script/generate plugin acts_as_page
You can then add a module which defines acts_as_page
and extends it into all models.
# in plugins/acts_as_page/lib/acts_as_page.rb
module ActsAsPage
def acts_as_page
# ...
end
end
# in plugins/acts_as_page/init.rb
class ActiveRecord::Base
extend ActsAsPage
end
This way the acts_as_page method is available as a class method to all models and you can define any behavior into there. You could do something like this...
module ActsAsPage
def acts_as_page
attr_writer :title, :permalink
include Behavior
end
module Behavior
def title
# ...
end
def permalink
# ...
end
end
end
And then when you call acts_as_page in the model...
class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
acts_as_page
end
It will define the attributes and add the methods. If you need things to be a bit more dynamic (such as if you want the acts_as_page
method to take arguments which changes the behavior) try out the solution I present in this Railscasts episode.