README

Validation Reflection
=====================

Version 1.0.0, 2010-10-08

This plugin adds reflective access to validations

 - ModelClass.reflect_on_all_validations
 - ModelClass.reflect_on_validations_for(:property)

Both of these methods return arrays containing instances of
ActiveRecord::Reflection::MacroReflection. For example

  class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
    validates_presence_of :name
    validates_numericality_of :size, :only_integer => true
  end

  refl = Person.reflect_on_validations_for(:name)
  refl[0].macro
  # => :validates_presence_of
  
  refl = Person.reflect_on_validations_for(:size)
  refl[0].macro
  # => :validates_numericality_of
  refl[0].options
  # => { :only_integer => true }
  

== Customization

Usually, all the standard Rails validations are reflected.
You can change this -- add or remove validations -- in an
application-specific initializer, 

  config/initializers/validation_reflection.rb

In that file change config.reflected_validations to suit your
needs. Say, you have a custom validation for email addresses,
validates_as_email, then you could add it like this

  config.reflected_validations << :validates_as_email

If validates_as_email is implemented in terms of other validation
methods, these validations are added to the reflection metadata,
too. As that may not be what you want, you can disable reflection
for these subordinate validations

  config.reflected_validations << {
  	:method => :validates_as_email,
  	:ignore_subvalidations => true
  }

You have to make sure that all reflected validations are defined
before this plugin is loaded. To this end, you may have to
explicitly set the load order of plugins somewhere in the environment
configuration using

  config.plugins = [...]


== Special Thanks

To Michael Schuerig, michael@schuerig.de for his initial concept and implementation of this plugin.

== License

ValidationReflection uses the MIT license. Please check the LICENSE file for more details.