enumify adds an enum command to all ActiveRecord models which enables you to work with string attributes as if they were enums
Just add the enumify gem to your GemFile
Just call the enum function in any ActiveRecord object, the function accepts the field name as the first variable and the possible values as an array
class Event < ActiveRecord::Base
enum :status, [:available, :canceled, :completed]
end
After that you get several autogenerated commands to use with the enum
# Access through field name
event.status # returns the enum's current value as a symbol
event.status = :canceled # sets the enum's value to canceled (can also get a string)
# Shorthand methods, access through the possible values
event.available? # returns true if enum's current status is available
event.canceled! # changes the enum's value to canceled
# Get all the possible values
Event::STATUSES # returns all available status of the enum
Another cool feature of enumify is the option to add a callback function that will be called each time the value of the field changes This is cool to do stuff like log stuff or create behaviour on state changes
All you need to do is add a x_changed method in your class and the enumify will call it
class Event < ActiveRecord::Base
enum :status, [:available, :canceled, :completed]
def status_changed(old, new)
puts "status changed from #{old} to #{new}"
end
end
One last thing that the enumify gem does is created scope (formerly nested_scopes) so you can easly query by the enum
For example if you want to count all the events that are canceled you can just run
Event.canceled.count
Copyright (c) 2011 Yonatan Bergman, released under the MIT license