mocra/by_star

Lets you find ActiveRecord objects by year, month, fortnight, week and more!

by_*

by_* (byStar) is a plugin that allows you to find ActiveRecord objects given certain date objects. This was originally crafted for only finding objects within a given month, but now has extended out to much more. It now supports finding objects for:

• A given year
• A given month
• A given fortnight
• A given week
• A given weekend
• A given day
• The current weekend
• The current work week
• Between certain times
• As of a certain time
• Up to a certain time

It also allows you to do nested finds on the records returned which I personally think is the coolest feature of the whole plugin:

Post.by_month(1) do
  { :include => "tags", :conditions => ["tags.name = ?", 'ruby'] }
end

If you're not using the standard created_at field: don't worry! I've covered that scenario too.

By Year (by_year)

To find records based on a year you can pass it a two or four digit number:

Post.by_year(09)

This will return all posts in 2009, whereas:

Post.by_year(99)

will return all the posts in the year 1999.

By Month (by_month)

If you know the number of the month you want:

Post.by_month(1)

This will return all posts in the first month (January) of the current year.

If you like being verbose:

Post.by_month("January")

This will return all posts created in January of the current year.

If you want to find all posts in January of last year just do

Post.by_month(1, :year => 2007)

or

Post.by_month("January", :year => 2007)

This will perform a find using the column you've specified.

If you have a Time object you can use it to find the posts:

 Post.by_month(Time.local(2008, 11, 24))

This will find all the posts in November 2008.

By Fortnight (by_fortnight)

Fortnight numbering starts at 0. The beginning of a fortnight is Monday, 12am.

To find records from the current fortnight:

Post.by_fortnight

To find records based on a fortnight, you can pass in a number (representing the fortnight number) or a time object:

Post.by_fortnight(18)

This will return all posts in the 18th fortnight of the current year.

Post.by_fortnight(18, :year => 2008)

This will return all posts in the 18th fortnight week of 2008.

Post.by_fortnight(Time.local(2008,1,1))

This will return all posts from the first fortnight of 2008.

By Week (by_week)

Week numbering starts at 0. The beginning of a week is Monday, 12am.

To find records from the current week:

Post.by_week

To find records based on a week, you can pass in a number (representing the week number) or a time object:

Post.by_week(36)

This will return all posts in the 36th week of the current year.

Post.by_week(36, :year => 2008)

This will return all posts in the 36th week of 2008.

Post.by_week(Time.local(2008,1,1))

This will return all posts from the first week of 2008.

By Weekend (by_weekend)

If the time passed in (or the time now is a weekend) it will return posts from 12am Saturday to 11:59:59PM Sunday. If the time is a week day, it will show all posts for the coming weekend.

Post.by_weekend(Time.now)

By Day (by_day or today)

To find records for today:

Post.by_day
Post.today

To find records for a certain day:

Post.by_day(Time.local(2008, 1, 1))

You can also pass a string:

Post.by_day("next tuesday")

This will return all posts for the given day.

Current Weekend (by_current_weekend)

If you are currently in a weekend (between 3pm Friday and 3am Monday) this will find all records starting at 3pm the previous Friday up until 3am, Monday.

If you are not in a weekend (between 3am Monday and 3pm Friday) this will find all records from the next Friday 3pm to the following Monday 3am.

Current Work Week (by_current_work_week)

If you are currently in a work week (between 3am Monday and 3pm Friday) this will find all records in that range. If you are currently in a weekend (between 3pm Friday and 3am Monday) this will return all records in the upcoming work week.

Tomorrow (tomorrow)

This method has been shown to be shifty when passed a Date object, it is recommended that you pass it a Time object instead.

To find all posts from the day after the current date:

Post.tomorrow

To find all posts after a given Date or Time object:

Post.tomorrow(Date.today + 2)
Post.tomorrow(Time.now + 5.days)

You can also pass a string:

Post.tomorrow("next tuesday")

Yesterday (yesterday)

This method has been shown to be shifty when passed a Date object, it is recommended that you pass it a Time object instead.

To find all posts from the day before the current date:

Post.yesterday

To find all posts before a given Date or Time object:

Post.yesterday(Date.today + 2)
Post.yesterday(Time.now + 5.days)

You can also pass a string:

Post.yesterday("next tuesday")

Past (past)

To find all posts before the current time:

Post.past

To find all posts before certain time or date:

Post.past(Date.today + 2)
Post.past(Time.now + 5.days)

You can also pass a string:

Post.past("next tuesday")

Future (future)

To find all posts after the current time:

Post.future

To find all posts after certain time or date:

Post.future(Date.today + 2)
Post.future(Time.now + 5.days)

You can also pass a string:

Post.future("next tuesday")

Between (between)

To find records between two times:

Post.between(time1, time2)

Also works with dates:

Post.between(date1, date2)

And with strings:

Post.between("last tuesday", "next wednesday")

As of (as_of_<dynamic>)

To find records as of a certain date up until the current time:

Post.as_of_2_weeks_ago

This uses the Chronic "human mind reading" (read: it's really good at determining what time you mean using written English) library to work it out.

Up to (up_to_<dynamic>)

To find records up to a certain time from the current time:

Post.up_to_6_weeks_from_now

Not using created_at? No worries!

If your database uses something other than created_at for storing a timestamp, you can specify the field option like this:

Post.by_month("January", :field => :something_else)

All methods support this extra option.

Scoping the find

All the by_* methods takes a block which will then scope the find based on the options passed into it. The supported options are the same options that are supported by ActiveRecord::Base.find:

 Post.by_month(1) do
   { :include => "tags", :conditions => ["tags.name = ?", 'ruby'] }
 end

"Chronicable string"

This means a string that can be parsed with the Chronic gem.

Collaborators

Unfortunately I forget who exactly prompted me to write the plugin, but I would like to thank #rubyonrails for their support and the following people:

• Mislav Marohnic
• August Lilleas (leethal)
• gte351s
• Thomase Sinclair (anathematic)
• The dude(s) & gal(s) who created Chronic

Suggestions?

If you have suggestions, please contact me at [email protected]