rails/activemodel/README.rdoc

= Active Model -- model interfaces for Rails

Active Model provides a known set of interfaces for usage in model classes.
They allow for Action Pack helpers to interact with non-ActiveRecord models,
for example. Active Model also helps building custom ORMs for use outside of
the Rails framework.

Prior to Rails 3.0, if a plugin or gem developer wanted to have an object
interact with Action Pack helpers, it was required to either copy chunks of
code from Rails, or monkey patch entire helpers to make them handle objects
that did not exacly conform to the Active Record interface. This would result
in code duplication and fragile applications that broke on upgrades.

Active Model solves this. You can include functionality from the following
modules:

* Add attribute magic to objects

    class Person
      include ActiveModel::AttributeMethods
      
      attribute_method_prefix 'clear_'
      define_attribute_methods [:name, :age]
      
      attr_accessor :name, :age
      
      def clear_attribute(attr)
        send("#{attr}=", nil)
      end
    end
    
    person.clear_name
    person.clear_age
  
  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/AttributeMethods.html]
  
* Callbacks for certain operations

    class Person
      extend ActiveModel::Callbacks
      define_model_callbacks :create
    
      def create
        _run_create_callbacks do
          # Your create action methods here
        end
      end
    end
  
  This generates +before_create+, +around_create+ and +after_create+
  class methods that wrap your create method.
  
  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/CallBacks.html]

* Tracking value changes

  The ActiveModel::Dirty module allows for tracking attribute changes:

    person = Person.new
    person.name # => nil
    person.changed? # => false
    person.name = 'bob'
    person.changed? # => true
    person.changed # => ['name']
    person.changes # => { 'name' => [nil, 'bob'] }
    person.name = 'robert'
    person.save
    person.previous_changes # => {'name' => ['bob, 'robert']}
  
  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/Dirty.html]

* Adding +errors+ interface to objects

  Exposing error messages allows objects to interact with Action Pack
  helpers seamlessly.
  
    class Person
    
      def initialize
        @errors = ActiveModel::Errors.new(self)
      end
    
      attr_accessor :name
      attr_reader   :errors
    
      def validate!
        errors.add(:name, "can not be nil") if name == nil
      end
    
      def ErrorsPerson.human_attribute_name(attr, options = {})
        "Name"
      end
    
    end
    
    person.errors.full_messages
    # => ["Name Can not be nil"]
    
    person.errors.full_messages
    # => ["Name Can not be nil"]

  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/Errors.html]

* Model name introspection

    class NamedPerson
      extend ActiveModel::Naming
    end
    
    NamedPerson.model_name        #=> "NamedPerson"
    NamedPerson.model_name.human  #=> "Named person"

  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/Naming.html]

* Observer support

  ActiveModel::Observers allows your object to implement the Observer
  pattern in a Rails App and take advantage of all the standard observer
  functions.
  
  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/Observer.html]

* Making objects serializable

  ActiveModel::Serialization provides a standard interface for your object
  to provide +to_json+ or +to_xml+ serialization.
  
    s = SerialPerson.new
    s.serializable_hash   # => {"name"=>nil}
    s.to_json             # => "{\"name\":null}"
    s.to_xml              # => "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n<serial-person...
  
  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/Serialization.html]

* Internationalization (i18n) support

    class Person
      extend ActiveModel::Translation
    end
    
    Person.human_attribute_name('my_attribute')
    #=> "My attribute"
  
  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/Translation.html]

* Validation support

   class Person
     include ActiveModel::Validations

     attr_accessor :first_name, :last_name

     validates_each :first_name, :last_name do |record, attr, value|
       record.errors.add attr, 'starts with z.' if value.to_s[0] == ?z
     end
   end

   person = Person.new
   person.first_name = 'zoolander'
   person.valid?  #=> false

  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/Validations.html]
  
* Custom validators

   class Person
     include ActiveModel::Validations
     validates_with HasNameValidator
     attr_accessor :name
   end
   
   class HasNameValidator < ActiveModel::Validator
     def validate(record)
      record.errors[:name] = "must exist" if record.name.blank?
     end
   end
   
   p = ValidatorPerson.new
   p.valid?                  #=>  false
   p.errors.full_messages    #=> ["Name must exist"]
   p.name = "Bob"
   p.valid?                  #=>  true

  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/Validator.html]