vote_fu
Allows an arbitrary number of entites (including Users) to vote on models.
Mixins
This plugin introduces three mixins to your recipe book:
- acts_as_voteable : Intended for content objects like Posts, Comments, etc.
- acts_as_voter : Intended for voting entities, like Users.
- has_karma : Intended for voting entities, or other objects that own the things you're voting on.
Inspiration
This plugin started as an adaptation / update of act_as_voteable. It has grown different from that plugin in several ways:
- You can specify the model name that initiates votes.
- You can, with a little tuning, have more than one entity type vote on more than one model type.
- Adds "acts_as_voter" behavior to the initiator of votes.
- Introduces some newer Rails features like named_scope and :polymorphic keywords
- Adds "has_karma" mixin for identifying key content contributors
Difference between original vote_fu
- The data-type of the
vote
column in thevotes
table is changed to integer type. - Support for vote count caching at the
voteable
model. - New method
votes_total
onvoteable
model to return the sum of +ve and -ve votes - Optimized several methods in
voteable
model (voters_who_voted
,voted_by?
) - Code cleanup to use associations instead of direct SQL
- The
tally
method supportsat_least_total
andat_most_total
parameters to filter by sum of votes. - The :order option of the
tally
method supports order bytotal
(E.g: :order => "toal DESC") Installation ============ Use either the plugin or the gem installation method depending on your preference. If you're not sure, the plugin method is simpler. Whichever you choose, create the migration afterward and run it to create the required model.
Via plugin
./script/plugin install git://github.com/kandadaboggu/vote_fu.git
Via gem
Add the following to your application's environment.rb: config.gem "kandadaboggu-vote_fu", :lib => 'vote_fu', :source => "http://gemcutter.org"
Install the gem: rake gems:install
Create vote_fu migration
Create a new rails migration using your new vote_fu generator (Note: "VoteableModel" is the name of the model on which you would like votes to be cast, e.g. Comment): ./script/generate vote_fu VoteableModel
Run the migration: rake db:migrate
Usage
Getting Started
Make your ActiveRecord model act as voteable.
class Model < ActiveRecord::Base
acts_as_voteable
end
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
acts_as_voteable :vote_counter => true # Stores the sum of the votes in the `vote_total`
# column of the `posts` table.
end
class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base
acts_as_voteable :vote_counter => :comments_vote_count # Stores the sum of the votes in the `comments_vote_count`
# column of the `comments` table.
end
Make your ActiveRecord model(s) that vote act as voter.
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
acts_as_voter
end
class Robot < ActiveRecord::Base
acts_as_voter
end
To cast a vote for a Model you can do the following:
Shorthand syntax
voter.vote_for(voteable) # Adds a +1 vote
voter.vote_against(voteable) # Adds a -1 vote
voter.vote(voteable, t_or_f) # Adds either +1 or -1 vote true => +1, false => -1
ActsAsVoteable syntax
The old acts_as_voteable syntax is still supported:
vote = Vote.new(:vote => true)
m = Model.find(params[:id])
m.votes << vote
user.votes << vote
Querying votes
Tallying Votes
You can easily retrieve voteable object collections based on the properties of their votes:
@items = Item.tally(
{ :at_least => 1,
:at_most => 10000,
:start_at => 2.weeks.ago,
:end_at => 1.day.ago,
:limit => 10,
:order => "items.name desc"
})
This will select the Items with between 1 and 10,000 votes, the votes having been cast within the last two weeks (not including today), then display the 10 last items in an alphabetical list.
@items = Item.tally(
{ :at_least_total => 1,
:at_most_total => 10000,
:start_at => 2.weeks.ago,
:end_at => 1.day.ago,
:limit => 10,
:order => "total desc"
})
This will select the Items with between 1 and 10,000 total votes, the votes having been cast within the last two weeks (not including today), then display the 10 last items in a descending order list by total votes.
Tally Options:
:start_at - Restrict the votes to those created after a certain time
:end_at - Restrict the votes to those created before a certain time
:conditions - A piece of SQL conditions to add to the query
:limit - The maximum number of voteables to return
:order - A piece of SQL to order by. Two calculated columns `count`, and `total`
are available for sorting apart from other columns. Defaults to `total DESC`.
Eg: :order => 'count desc'
:order => 'total desc'
:order => 'post.created_at desc'
:at_least - Item must have at least X votes count
:at_most - Item may not have more than X votes count
:at_least_total - Item must have at least X votes total
:at_most_total - Item may not have more than X votes total
Lower level queries
ActiveRecord models that act as voteable can be queried for the positive votes, negative votes, and a total vote count by using the votes_for, votes_against, and votes_count methods respectively. Here is an example:
positiveVoteCount = m.votes_for
negativeVoteCount = m.votes_against
voteCount = m.votes_count
totalVote = m.votes_total
And because the Vote Fu plugin will add the has_many votes relationship to your model you can always get all the votes by using the votes property:
allVotes = m.votes
The mixin also provides these methods:
voter.voted_for?(voteable) # True if the voter voted for this object.
voter.vote_count([true|false|"all"]) # returns the count of +1, -1, or all votes
voteable.voted_by?(voter) # True if the voter voted for this object.
@voters = voteable.voters_who_voted
Named Scopes
The Vote model has several named scopes you can use to find vote details:
@pete_votes = Vote.for_voter(pete)
@post_votes = Vote.for_voteable(post)
@recent_votes = Vote.recent(1.day.ago)
@descending_votes = Vote.descending
You can chain these together to make interesting queries:
# Show all of Pete's recent votes for a certain Post, in descending order (newest first)
@pete_recent_votes_on_post = Vote.for_voter(pete).for_voteable(post).recent(7.days.ago).descending
Experimental: Voteable Object Owner Karma
I have just introduced the "has_karma" mixin to this package. It aims to assign a karma score to the owners of voteable objects. This is designed to allow you to see which users are submitting the most highly voted content. Currently, karma is only "positive". That is, +1 votes add to karma, but -1 votes do not detract from it.
class User
has_many :posts
has_karma :posts
end
class Post
acts_as_voteable
end
# in your view, you can then do this:
Karma: <%= @user.karma %>
This feature is in alpha, but useful enough that I'm releasing it.
One vote per user!
If you want to limit your users to a single vote on each item, take a look in lib/vote.rb.
# Uncomment this to limit users to a single vote on each item.
# validates_uniqueness_of :voteable_id, :scope => [:voteable_type, :voter_type, :voter_id]
And if you want that enforced at the database level, look in the generated migration for your voteable:
# If you want to enfore "One Person, One Vote" rules in the database, uncomment the index below
# add_index :votes, ["voter_id", "voter_type", "voteable_id", "voteable_type"], :unique => true, :name => "uniq_one_vote_only"
Example Application
There is now a reference application available. Due to overwhelming demand for example code and kickstart guides, I have open-sourced MyQuotable.com in order to provide an easy-to-follow example of how to use VoteFu with RESTful Authentication, JRails, and other popular plugins. To get the example code:
git clone git://github.com/peteonrails/myquotable.git
There will be a screencast coming soon too. Contact me if you want to help.
Consideration
If you like this software and use it, please consider recommending me on Working With Rails.
I don't want donations: a simple up-vote would make my day. My profile is: http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/12521-peter-jackson
To go directly to the "Recommend Me" screen: http://www.workingwithrails.com/recommendation/new/person/12521-peter-jackson
Credits
Contributors
- Bence Nagy, Budapest, Hungary
- Jon Maddox, Richmond, Virginia, USA
- Kandada Boggu, Palo Alto, CA, USA
Other works
Juixe - The original ActsAsVoteable plugin inspired this code.
Xelipe - This plugin is heavily influenced by Acts As Commentable.
More
Support: Use my blog for support.
Documentation from the original acts_as_voteable plugin
Copyright (c) 2008 Peter Jackson, released under the MIT license