Acts as array

acts_as_array makes possible to treat your array fields simply.

Add the following to your Gemfile:

gem 'acts_as_array'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Say an user has multiple mail addresses. Typically you will define table schema as:

create_table :users do |t|
  t.string :name
end

create_table :mails do |t|
  t.string :address
  t.references :user
end

And, define ActiveRecord models as:

class Mail < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user
end

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :mails
end

In this case, you will store multiple mail addresses to an users like:

ichiro = User.new(name: 'Ichiro')
ichiro.mails = [Mail.new(address: 'ichiro@example.com'), Mail.new(address: 'ichiro2@example.com')]
ichiro.save

But, you want to set multiple mail addresses simply like followings?:

ichiro = User.new(name: 'Ichiro')
ichiro.mails = ['ichiro@example.com', 'ichiro2@example.com']
ichiro.save

Then, acts_as_array is available for you.

Use acts_as_array as:

class Mail < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user
end

require 'acts_as_array'
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :mails
  include ActsAsArray
  acts_as_array :mails => {:field => :address}
end

Then, it makes possible to set and get non-object array values like:

ichiro = User.new(name: 'Ichiro')
ichiro.mails = ['ichiro@example.com', 'ichiro2@example.com']
ichiro.save
User.first.mails #=> ['ichiro@example.com', 'ichiro2@example.com']

You can also get the original object array values with:

ichiro.obj_mails #=> [Mail.new(address: 'ichiro@example.com'), Mail.new(address: 'ichiro2@example.com')]

Following ActiveRecord methods are supported to specify non-object array values:

• create

  create(field: non_object_array)

• update_attributes

  update_attributes(field: non_object_array)

• update

  update(field: non_object_array)

• {field}=

  {field} = non_object_array

Also, following getter methods are available:

• {field}

  Return non-object array values

• obj_{field}

  Return object array values

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create new Pull Request

• Copyright (c) 2014 Naotoshi Seo. See LICENSE for details.