#ActiveMeta

ActiveMeta is a new way to write Rails models which prioritizes properties and behaviours in reusable Rules.

The main purpose of ActiveMeta is to store informations about your ActiveRecord models. The main question it tries to answer is "How do I know which attributes of my models are strings? Which attributes are ActiveRecord relations? Which attributes should validate uniqueness?".

By themselves, these questions can be answered with help from StackOverflow. However, all of them will be accessed in a different way and you won't have a unique way to easily retrieve a model's properties, should you need use them elsewhere (let's say: if you want to send them to a frontend API).

ActiveMeta is nothing more than a wrapper: it stores attributes and their rules. It is up to you to write rules according to the properties you want to store/retrieve and the behaviour you want to apply to your ActiveRecord models.

Changelog

• First working version. (Arnaud 'red' Rouyer)

Quick example

With the correct rules defined (in this case: type, validates_presence, getter and has_many), here is an example MetaClass.

module Meta::User
  extend ActiveMeta::Core

  attribute :last_name do
    type :string
    validates_presence
  end

  attribute :first_name do
    type :string
    validates_presence
  end

  attribute :age do
    type :integer
    validates_presence
  end

  attribute :full_name do
    getter do
      "#{last_name} #{first_name} (#{age} years)"
    end
  end

  attribute :orders do
    has_many
  end
end

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  include Meta::User
end

Now, using User.meta, you can know which attributes are required for your User model, which attributes are expecting strings or numbers and which one is an ActiveRecord relation.

While type only stores information, the validates_presence, getter and has_many wrappers will apply themselves to your ActiveRecord model to call the proper methods. That is:

• validates_presence on attributes :age, :last_name and :first_name will call validates_presence_of :age, :last_name, :first_name.
• getter on attribute :full_name will define a #full_name method with the provided block.
• has_many on attribute :orders will call has_many :orders.

Now, your User model has the behaviour you wanted, and you can use User.meta to get all its properties in the way you want them.

Getting started

Three components define the core concepts of ActiveMeta: Core, Rule and Attribute.

ActiveMeta::Core

The ActiveMeta::Core module defines the main ActiveMeta entry point: that is, the first thing required to make your own MetaClass.

To become a MetaClass, your module needs to extend ActiveMeta::Core.

module Meta
  module User
    extend ActiveMeta::Core
  end
end

Under the hood, this will add five methods to your MetaClass:

• ActiveMeta::Core#included(base) This method is the standard Module#included method. This method is tasked with 1) extending your base model with methods (#meta and .meta) to access your MetaClass and its properties, 2) apply your MetaClass rules to your base model.

• ActiveMeta::Core#attribute(attribute, &block) This method is to be called from your MetaClass to define a new ActiveMeta::Attribute with a block of rules. These rules will be evaluated in the context of the newly-created attribute.

module Meta::User
  extend ActiveMeta::Core

  attribute :last_name do
    first_rule_for_last_name
    second_rule_for_last_name
  end

  attribute :first_name do
    first_rule_for_first_name
    second_rule_for_last_name
  end
end

• ActiveMeta::Core#attributes Accessor for @attributes, a hash containing the currently defined attributes as keys and their ActiveMeta::Attribute as values.

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  extend Meta::User
end

User.meta.attributes.keys # => [:last_name, :first_name]
User.meta.attributes.values[0] # => <ActiveMeta::Attribute @attribute=:last_name>
User.meta.attributes.values[1] # => <ActiveMeta::Attribute @attribute=:first_name>

• ActiveMeta::Core#rules Accessor for all ActiveMeta::Rule instances pertaining to this MetaClass.

User.meta.rules.length # => 4
User.meta.rules[0] # => <ActiveMeta::Rule @attribute=:last_name @rule_name="first_rule_for_last_name">
User.meta.rules[3] # => <ActiveMeta::Rule @attribute=:first_name @rule_name="second_rule_for_last_name">

• ActiveMeta::Core#\[\](*args) Quicker accessor to select rules depending on their name. Supports multiple arguments.

User.meta[:second_rule_for_last_name].length # => 1
User.meta[:second_rule_for_last_name]
# => [<ActiveMeta::Rule @attribute=:first_name @rule_name="second_rule_for_last_name">]
#
User.meta[:second_rule_for_last_name, :first_rule_for_last_name]
# => [
#  <ActiveMeta::Rule @attribute=:last_name @rule_name="first_rule_for_last_name">,
#  <ActiveMeta::Rule @attribute=:first_name @rule_name="second_rule_for_last_name">
# ]

ActiveMeta::Rule

By itself, an instance of ActiveMeta::Rule only contains the @attribute for which it was defined, the @rule_name defined in its constructor and the @arguments passed to it.

It is up to you to build new classes inheriting ActiveMeta::Rule to suit the common properties and behaviours of your attributes.

Storing properties

As said earlier, by default, an instance of ActiveMeta::Rule#initialize will store @attribute, @rule_name and @arguments.

This is especially useful to create "properties rules", which are rules not altering model bahaviour, but providing us with easy-to-access informations regarding their attributes.

class NiceAttributeRule < ActiveMeta::Rule # Rule called with 'nice_attribute(arguments)'
  def is_this_attribute_nice?
    @arguments.last
  end
end

class UpdatableRule < ActiveMeta::Rule # Rule called with 'updatable(arguments)'
  def updatable_by?(role)
    @arguments.last[:on] == role
  end
end

module Meta::User # MetaClass definition
  extend ActiveMeta::Core

  attribute :last_name do
    nice_attribute true
    updatable by: :admin
  end

  attribute :first_name do
    nice_attribute false
    updatable by: :admin
  end

  attribute :age do
    nice_attribute true
    updatable by: :nobody
  end
end

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  include Meta::User # include our MetaClass
end

User.meta.attributes[:last_name].rules.first.class.name  # => NiceAttributeRule
User.meta.attributes[:last_name].rules.first.is_this_attribute_nice? # => true

User.meta.attributes[:first_name].rules.first.class.name  # => NiceAttributeRule
User.meta.attributes[:first_name].rules.first.is_this_attribute_nice? # => false

User.meta[:nice_attribute].select(&:is_this_attribute_nice?).map(&:attribute) # => ['last_name']
User.meta[:updatable].select{|x| x.updatable_by?(:admin) }.map(&:attribute) # => ['last_name', 'first_name']

Altering your base class

After defining your model properties, you will want to define your model's behaviour. Rules can be built for this on two levels: attribute-level and class-level.

Altering your base class for each attribute

If your rule defines a #to_proc (instance) method, the resulting Proc will be applied (using Module#class_eval) to your ActiveRecord model for each attribute which called the rule.

class ValidatesUniquenessRule < ActiveMeta::Rule
  def to_proc
    binded_attribute = attribute
    Proc.new do
      validates_uniqueness_of binded_attribute
    end
  end
end

class HasManyRule < ActiveMeta::Rule
  def to_proc
    binded_attribute = attribute
    Proc.new do
      has_many binded_attribute.to_sym
    end
  end
end

module Meta::User
  attribute :email do
    validates_uniqueness
  end

  attribute :phone_number do
    validates_uniqueness
  end

  attribute :social_networks do
    has_many
  end
end

In the block before, ValidatesUniquenessRule#to_proc will be called twice (once for :email, then for :phone_number) and HasManyRule#to_proc will be called once for :social_networks.

This is useful for Procs defining behaviour specifics to one attribute.

Altering your base class for multiple attributes

If your rule defines a .to_proc (class) method, the resulting Proc will be applied (using Module#class_eval) to your ActiveRecord model ONCE, no matter how many attributes you defined it for.

This is useful to avoid calling the same code multiple times when no references to attributes is needed.

class UpdatableRule < ActiveMeta::Rule
  class << self
    def to_proc
      Proc.new do
        class << self
          def updatable_fields
            self.meta[:updatable].map(&:attribute)
          end
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

module Meta::User
  attribute ):id do
    not_updatable
  end

  attribute :last_name do
    updatable
  end

  attribute :first_name do
    updatable
  end
end

User.updatable_fields # => [:last_name, :first_name]

In the block before, UpdatableRule.to_proc will be called once.

This is useful for Procs defining behaviour not specific to one attribute and partaining to multiple attributes.

ActiveMeta::Attribute

An attribute defines a field on which rules will apply. This can be either an attribute from the ActiveRecord model, or a virtual attribute which will be fed/will feed existing ActiveRecord attributes.

module Meta::User
  extend ActiveMeta::Core

  attribute :last_name do
    do_not_export_json
  end

  attribute :first_name do
    do_not_export_json
  end

  attribute :full_name do
    always_Export_json

    getter do
      "#{last_name}, #{first_name}"
    end
  end
end

• ActiveMeta::Attribute#initialize(attribute, &block) Attributes are built exactly as defined in the MetaClass: calling attribute(:last_name){ rule_block } will call ActiveMeta::Attribute.new(:last_name){ rule_block }. The passed block is called straight with instance_eval to evaluate all rules with the current attribute as context.

• ActiveMeta::Attribute#method_missing(name, *args, &block) If no rule factories methods are defined within the context of ActiveMeta::Attribute, a call to an inexisting method will still create a rule WITH NO CONFIGURATION, only holding its own name (the method name) and the passed arguments as @arguments.

module Meta::User
  extend ActiveMeta::Core

  attribute :foo do
    existing_rule
    inexisting_rule with: :arguments
  end
end

User.meta.rules
# => [
#    <ExistingActiveMetaRule @attribute=:foo @rule_name="an_existing_rule">,
#   <ActiveMeta::Rule @attribute=:foo @rule_name=inexisting_rule @arguments={with: :arguments}>
# ]

• ActiveMeta::Attribute#register_rule(rule) Factory to register an ActiveMeta::Rule binded to the current ActiveMeta::Attribute. A rule SHOULD NOT be added manually to the internal @rules array (which holds the attribute rules) because register_rule sets up the rule's @parent to itself.

  User.meta.attributes[:foo] # => <ActiveMeta::Attribute @attribute=:foo>
  User.meta.attributes[:foo].rules.map(&:parent).uniq #=> [<ActiveMeta::Attribute @attribute=:foo>]

• ActiveMeta::Attribute#\[\](arg) Quick accessor to access a specific rule on an attribute (or assess its existence).

User.meta.attributes[:foo]['existing_rule']
# => <ActiveMeta::Rule @attribute=:foo @rule_name='existing_rule'>

User.meta.attributes[:foo]['absent_rule]
# => nil

• ActiveMeta::Attribute#apply_to_base(base) Once your MetaClass has been included in your base model class, this method will be called with your base model class as an argument. This will loop on all defined rules for the current attribute. Each rule defining a #to_proc method will have this Proc evaluated in the context of your base class.

class MyRule < ActiveMeta::Rule
  def to_proc
    Proc.new do
      puts "__#{self}__"
    end
  end
end

module Meta::Test
  attribute :test do
    my_rule
  end
end

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
end
User.send(:include, Meta::Test)
# => __<MyRule:Class>__

Going further

ActiveMeta::Concern

A concern is a block of code (attributes and rules) that is used in multiple MetaClasses.

The block is defined by passing it to ActiveMeta::Concern.new. A Module is returned to be extended in any of your MetaClasses.

PhoneableConcern = ActiveMeta::Concern.new do
  attribute :phone_number do
    type :string
    validates_uniqueness
  end
end

module Meta::User
  extend PhoneableConcern
end

module Meta::Customer
  extend PhoneableConcern
end

Class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  include Meta::User
end

class Customer < ActiveRecord::Base
  include Meta::Customer
end

User.meta.attributes[:phone_number].length # => 1
Customer.meta.attributes[:phone_number].length # => 1

ActiveMeta::Recipes and ActiveMeta::Concerns

These namespaces are here to include your own sets of rules and concerns depending on the library they relate to.

Ideal namespaces would be:

• ActiveMeta::Recipes::ActiveRecord::Validations::Uniqueness to call .validates_uniqueness_for

• ActiveMeta::Concerns::ActsAsParanoid to call .acts_as_paranoid

module ActiveMeta::Concerns
  ActsAsParanoid = ActiveMeta::Concern.new do
    attribute :deleted_at
      type :datetime
      acts_as_paranoid
    end
  end
end