Rails plugin that adds dynamic (non-database) configuration settings to any model or class.
Basic usage:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
acts_as_configurable
configuration do |config|
config.passwords.min_length = 6
config.passwords.max_length = 12
end
end
And then to access that configuration, simply call:
$> User.configuration
$> => {:passwords => { :min_length => 6, :max_length => 12 }}
Or just keep going down the chain to get to the specifics:
$> User.configuration.passwords
$> => {:min_length => 6, :max_length => 12}
$> User.configuration.passwords.min_length
$> => 6
Now, granted that a “configuration” class method is common enough that there may be a case
where you have a conflict. Well, you can also configure that part:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
acts_as_configurable :with => :settings
settings do |setting|
setting.passwords.min_length = 6
setting.passwords.max_length = 12
end
end
Then just use “settings” in place of “configuration” when accessing the data.
$> User.settings.passwords
$> => {:min_length => 6, :max_length => 12}
You can also nest configuration settings to keep things grouped nicely.
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
acts_as_configurable
configuration do |config|
config.passwords do |p|
p.min_length = 6
p.max_length = 12
end
config.accounts do |a|
# ...
end
end
end
This plugin mixes directly into Object
, so there’s no dependency on another library. While the
examples above are all ActiveRecord
models, they don’t have to be. Any class can act as configurable.
Actually, ActiveSupport
is required (thanks to class_inheritable_accessor
), but since this is a
plugin for a Rails application, there shouldn’t be any issues there.
Chris Scharf is the original author of this “on-the-fly” configuration.
His original implementation was intended for application wide configuration settings. You can find
his post about it here.
With my version, you can have the convenience of his configuration, but exclusive to the class in
which it’s contained. Plus it’s now a plugin.
© 2008 Ryan Heath and Chris Scharf, released under the MIT license