RunTimeSettings

Run time is the most important part. If you're okay with doing a deployment to update a setting, then that sounds like an environment variable (for which there are lots of good solutions). However, if you find yourself wanting to change a value more frequently, or you want someone without the ability to do a deployment to be able to change a value, then run-time settings might be for you.

In the end these are just namespaced key-value pairs stored in the database. You could create a settings model (and we do!) with a key attribute and a value attribute and you'd have just about the same thing. But it's ruby and it's rails, so you want a few more features from your settings:

• type castings so that 'true' returns true and '42' return 42
• default values
• predicate methods for boolean settings

Settings can be declared on any class—a PORO or an ActiveRecord can declare settings.

class BatchJob
  include RunTimeSettings::PersistentAttributes

  setting :last_run, :date
  setting :enabled, :boolean, default: false
  setting :percentage, :float
end

The settings are then available via accessors on the class:

BatchJob.last_run = Date.today
BatchJob.enabled?
BatchJob.percentage

The following types are available to use:

• big_integer
• boolean
• date
• datetime
• decimal
• float
• integer
• string
• time

Note: The time type does not store milliseconds.

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'run_time_settings'

And then execute:

$ bundle install

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install run_time_settings

The table must be created before settings can be used. Run the following command to generate a migration for the run_time_settings table:

rails g migration CreateRunTimeSettings namespace:string key_name:string db_value:string

It should generate a migration that looks something like this:

class CreateRunTimeSettings < ActiveRecord::Migration[6.0]
  def change
    create_table :run_time_settings do |t|
      t.string :namespace
      t.string :key_name
      t.string :db_value
      t.timestamps
    end
  end
end

Guard runs both RuboCop and RSpec. Rubocop is configured to auto-correct safe issues.

Start Guard at the command line: bundle exec guard

Both can be run manually from the command line:

rubocop

bundle exec rspec

Run the console with the following:

bundle exec rake console

The tests (and the console) use an in-memory database, so there is no prior setup required. It gets created each time.

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/RockSolt/run_time_settings. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the code of conduct.

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

Everyone interacting in the RunTimeSettings project's codebases, issue trackers, chat rooms and mailing lists is expected to follow the code of conduct.