Shapeshifter

Shapeshifter is a simple pattern for transforming data from one format to another.

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'shapeshifter'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install shapeshifter

#A Simple Shifter

class SimpleShifter < Shapeshifter::Shifter
  def shift(target_object)
    # Transform target_object using source_object
    targeting_object # Return the transformed target
  end

  def revert(target_object)
    # Transform target_object using source_object
    targeting_object # Return the transformed target
  end
end

A shifter consists of two methods: shift and revert. Both follow the same pattern in that the shifter is instantiated with a source object and each method receives a target object to manipulate using the data of the source.

#Chaining

The shifter by itself is not particularly interesting, but where it gets fun is that they can be chained together to break complex data manipulations down into simple small chunks.

shift_chain = SimpleShifter
                .chain(SimpleShifter2)
                .chain(SimpleShifter3)

This shift chain can then be easily reused for both shifting 'forward' and reverting 'backwards'.

shift_chain.shift(source_object, target_object)
shift_chain.revert(source_object, target_object)

When running a forward shift the shifters will be run in sequence SimpleShifter -> SimpleShifter2 -> SimpleShifter3 each being instantiated with the source object (then available as an attr_reader within the instance) and then being sent the shift message with the target object as an argument. The target object will therefore change as it passes through the chain allowing you to have shifters that operate differently based on its contents.

Revert operates in the same fashion except it runs through the chain in reverse, starting at SimpleShifter3 and finishing at SimpleShifter calling the revert method on each instance as it traverses the chain.

#Nesting

One of the nice side effects is that you can nest shifters calls within other shifters, e.g.

class ComplexShifter < Shapeshifter::Shifter
  def shift(target_object)
    sub_object = source_object.sub_object
    partial_target = internal_chain.shift(sub_object, {})
    target_object.merge(partial_target: partial_target)
  end

  def revert(target_object)
    #...
    internal_chain.revert(sub_object, {})
    #...
    target_object
  end

  def internal_chain
    SimpleShifter
      .chain(SimpleShifter2)
      .chain(SimpleShifter3)
  end
end

This allows you to build quite complex data manipulations in small easily testable chunks.

1. Fork it ( https://github.com/[my-github-username]/shapeshifter/fork )
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 a new Pull Request