Attrio

Attributes for plain Ruby objects. The goal is to provide an ability to define attributes for your models without reinventing the wheel all over again. Attrio doesn't have any third-party dependencies like Virtus or ActiveAttr and does not redefine any methods inside your class, unless you want it to.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'attrio'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install attrio

Usage

Include Attrio into your class and then use #define_attributes block to declare you attributes.

class User
  include Attrio

  define_attributes do
  	attr :name, String
    attr :age, Integer
    attr :birthday, DateTime
  end
end

Accessing attributes

By default Attrio defines #attributes accessor which contains Hash with attributes names as keys and instances of Attrio::Attribute as values. Each instance of Attrio::Attribute contains following information:

type
writer method name
writer method visibility
reader method name
reader method visibility
instance variable name
additional options

user = User.new
user.attributes
# => {
#	:name => #<Attrio::Attribute:0x007fc44e8ca680 @object=#<User:0x007fc44e8b2b48>, @name="name", @type=String, @options={}, @writer_method_name="name=", @writer_visibility=:public, @instance_variable_name="@name", @reader_method_name="name", @reader_visibility=:public>,
#	:age => #<Attrio::Attribute:0x007fc44e8d4c98 @object=#<User:0x007fc44e8b2b48>, @name="age", @type=Attrio::Types::Integer, @options={}, @writer_method_name="age=", @writer_visibility=:public, @instance_variable_name="@age", @reader_method_name="age", @reader_visibility=:public>,
#	:birthday = >#<Attrio::Attribute:0x007fc44e8e2e38 @object=#<User:0x007fc44e8b2b48>, @name="birthday", @type=Attrio::Types::DateTime, @options={}, @writer_method_name="birthday=", @writer_visibility=:public, @instance_variable_name="@birthday", @reader_method_name="birthday", @reader_visibility=:public>
# }
user.attributes.keys
# => [:name, :age, :birthday]

Attributes can be filtered.

user.attributes([:name, :age, :not_existing_attribute]).keys
# => [:name, :age]

Accessor name can be easily overridden by passing :as option to define_attributes block.

class User
  include Attrio

  define_attributes :as => 'api_attributes' do
  	attr :name, String
    attr :age, Integer
    attr :birthday, DateTime
  end

  define_attributes :as => 'settings' do
    attr :receives_notifications, Boolean, :default => true
  end

end

user = User.new
user.api_attributes # => {...}

Default values

Attrio supports all the ways to setup default values that Virtus has.

class Page
  include Attrio

  define_attributes do
    attr :title, String

    # default from a singleton value (integer in this case)
    attr :views, Integer, :default => 0

    # default from a singleton value (boolean in this case)
    attr :published, Boolean, :default => false

    # default from a callable object (proc in this case)
    attr :slug, String, :default => lambda { |page, attribute| page.title.present? ? page.title.downcase.gsub(' ', '-') : nil }

    # default from a method name as symbol
    attr :editor_title, String,  :default => :default_editor_title
  end

  def initialize(attributes = {})
    self.attributes = attributes
  end

  def attributes=(attributes = {})
    attributes.each do |attr,value|
      self.send("#{attr}=", value) if self.respond_to?("#{attr}=")
    end
  end

  def default_editor_title
    if self.published?
      title
    else
      title.present? ? "UNPUBLISHED: #{title}" : "UNPUBLISHED"
    end
  end
end

You can does your attribute still has default value or not.

p = Page.new
=> #<Page title: nil, views: 0, published: false, slug: nil, editor_title: "UNPUBLISHED">
p.attributes[:editor_title].default?
=> true
p.editor_title = 'PUBLISHED'
=> "PUBLISHED"
p.attributes[:editor_title].default?
=> false

Embed Value

You can embed values in Attrio just like you do it in Virtus.

module MassAssignment
  def initialize(attributes = {})
    self.attributes = attributes
  end

  def attributes=(attributes = {})
    attributes.each do |attr,value|
      self.send("#{attr}=", value) if self.respond_to?("#{attr}=")
    end
  end
end

class City
  include Attrio
  include MassAssignment

  define_attributes do
    attr :name, String
  end
end

class Address
  include Attrio
  include MassAssignment

  define_attributes do
    attr :street,  String
    attr :zipcode, String
    attr :city,    City
  end
end

class User
  include Attrio
  include MassAssignment

  define_attributes do
    attr :name,    String
    attr :address, Address
  end
end

user = User.new( :address => { :street => 'Sklizkova 6A', :zipcode => '170000', :city => { :name => 'Tver' } } )
user.address.street
# => 'Sklizkova 6A'
user.address.zipcode
# => '170000'
user.address.city.name
# => 'Tver'

Methods visibility

Don't want your accessors to be public? Visibility can be overridden easily.

class User
  include Attrio

  define_attributes do
  	attr :name, String, :writer => :protected
    attr :secret_rating, Integer, :reader => :private
  end
end

Types

Any Ruby class can be passed as type to Attrio. If this class responds to typecast and typecasted? methods then they will be called, else new will be called.

class Klass
  include Attrio

  define_attributes do
  	attr :custom_attribute, CustomClass
  end
end

Built-in Types

Boolean

By default boolean typecasts 'yes', '1', 1, 'true' as TrueClass and all other values as FalseClass, but you easily modify this behaviour.

class Klass
  include Attrio

  define_attributes do
  	attr :boolean_attribute, Boolean

  	attr :custom_boolean_attribute, Boolean, :yes => ['ja', '1', 1]
  	# attr :custom_boolean_attribute, Boolean, :yes_values => ['ja', '1', 1]
  	# attr :custom_boolean_attribute, Boolean, :no => ['nein', '0', 0]
  	# attr :custom_boolean_attribute, Boolean, :no_values => ['nein', '0', 0]
  end
end

Date, Time and DateTime

These three class have similar behaviour and options. By passing :format option you can setup how strftime method will try to parse your string.

class Klass
  include Attrio

  define_attributes do
  	attr :date_attribute, Date
  	attr :time_attribute, Time
  	attr :date_time_attribute, DateTime

	attr :custom_date_time_attribute, DateTime, :format => '%m/%d/%y-%H:%M:%S-%z'
  end
end

Float

Attribute will be typecasted using to_f method.

class Klass
  include Attrio

  define_attributes do
  	attr :float_attribute, Float
  end
end

Integer

Attribute will be typecasted using to_i method.

Optional :base parameter can be passed, during the typecast attribute will be assumed to be in specified base and will always be translated to decimal base.

class Klass
  include Attrio

  define_attributes do
  	attr :integer_attribute, Integer
  	attr :custom_integer_attribute, Integer, :base => 2
  end
end

Symbol

Attribute will be typecasted using to_sym method.

If Optional :underscore parameter is passed, then attribute value will be downcased and underscored before calling to_sym.

class Klass
  include Attrio

  define_attributes do
  	attr :symbol_attribute, Symbol
  	attr :custom_symbol_attribute, Symbol, :underscore => true
  end
end

Array

Arrays are designed to automatically handle collections of objects (that also can be typecasted)

If value that should be typecasted responds to split, then this method is called with default (or overriden) attributes, else Array is wrapped on value. You can easily handle types and options of collection elements.

class Klass
  include Attrio

  define_attributes do
	attr :array_attribute, Array
    attr :custom_array_attribute, Array, :split => ', ', :element => { :type => Date, :options => { :format => '%m/%d/%y' } }
  end
end

Inspect

Attrio adds its own #inspect method when included to the class. This overridden method prints object attributes in easy to read manner. To disable this feature pass :inspect => false to define_arguments block.

class Klass
  include Attrio

  define_attributes :inspect => false do
  	attr :attribute, String
  end
end

Note on Patches / Pull Requests

Fork the project.
Make your feature addition or bug fix.
Add tests for it. This is important so I don't break it in a future version unintentionally.
Commit, do not mess with rakefile, version, or history. (if you want to have your own version, that is fine but bump version in a commit by itself I can ignore when I pull)
Send me a pull request. Bonus points for topic branches.

Credits

Webmaster is maintained by JetRockets.

Contributors:

License

It is free software, and may be redistributed under the terms specified in the LICENSE file.

attrio

Development