RecordWithOperator

Introduction

RecordWithOperator is a rails plugin that makes your all active record models to be saved or logically deleted with created_by, updated_by, deleted_by automatically. Also it makes creator, updater, deleter association (belongs_to) if the class has created_by, updated_by, deleted_by.

You need to set ‘operator’ (it may be an User object) to the instance of the model you are trying to create/save/update/delete. (This cannot happen automatically as the current_user is stored in the session which models cannot access.) Once you have set an operator, it will be copied to objects in the association collection, so it might be enough to set an operator per request. Operators are also useful for your access control features on model’s side. To set an operator, simply use operator= or get objects by find method with :for option.

The logical deletion function itself is out of this plugin’s scope. This plugin assumes that the logical deletion is kicked by record.destory.

Installation

> ./script/plugin install git://github.com/nay/record_with_operator.git

## Gemfile for Rails3
gem 'record_with_operator'

Example

Create Note table with nessisary attributes: class CreateNotes < ActiveRecord::Migration

def self.up
  create_table :users do |t|
    t.string :body
    t.operator_stamps  #creates attributes for created_by, updated_by, deleted_by
    t.timestamps
  end
end

Create a new note object with current_user:

note = Note.create(:body => "This is my first note.", :operator => current_user)
# note.operator will be current_user
# note.created_by will be current_user.id

Get note objects with current_user:

notes = Note.find(:all, :for => current_user)
# notes.first.operator will be current_user
# notes.find_by_body("This is my first note.").operator will be current_user

Create note’s comments:

note = Note.find(params[:id], :for => current_user)
note.comments.create!(:body => params[:comment_body])
# comment's operator will be automatically set and used as created_by

Configuration

You can change the operator’s class name by setting RecordWithOperator.config. The default is ‘User’. Note that it is required to change the value before the model’s creator/updater/deleter is firstly called. For example, you can write the code under config/initializers.

RecordWithOperator.config[:user_class_name] = "AdminUser"

It’s also possible to modify options for creator/updater/deleter associations. For example, in the case you use acts_as_paranoid and want to get creator/updater/deleter even if they are deleted, the configuration will be look like this.

RecordWithOperator.config[:operator_association_options] = {:with_deleted => true}