Rails Footnotes License: MIT Version: 3.4.1

You can also read this README in pretty html at the GitHub project Wiki page

http://github.com/josevalim/rails-footnotes/wikis/home

Description

If you are developing in Rails you should know the plugin! It displays footnotes in your application for easy debugging, such as sessions, request parameters, cookies, filter chain, routes, queries, etc.

Even more, it contains links to open files directly in your editor including your backtrace lines.

Installation

Install Rails Footnotes is very easy. If you are running on Rails 2.3 just run the following:

gem sources -a http://gems.github.com
sudo gem install josevalim-rails-footnotes

In RAILS_ROOT/config/environments/development.rb (yes, you want it only in development):

config.gem "josevalim-rails-footnotes",  :lib => "rails-footnotes", :source => "http://gems.github.com"

If you want it as plugin, just do:

script/plugin install git://github.com/josevalim/rails-footnotes.git

If you are running on Rails 2.2 or Rails 2.1 you should do:

cd myapp
git clone git://github.com/josevalim/rails-footnotes.git
cd vendor/plugins/rails-footnotes
git checkout VERSION_NUMBER
rm -rf ./.git

Where you should replace VERSION_NUMBER for “v3.3.2” for Rails 2.2 and “v3.2.2” for Rails 2.1 (without the quotes).

Configuration

If you are not using Textmate as text editor, in your environment.rb or in an initializer do:

if defined?(Footnotes)
  Footnotes::Filter.prefix = 'txmt://open?url=file://%s&line=%d&column=%d'
end

Where you are going to choose a prefix compatible with your text editor. The %s is replaced by the name of the file, the first %d is replaced by the line number and the second %d is replaced by the column. You can also enable this behaviour in other editors following the steps in the link below:

http://josevalim.blogspot.com/2008/06/textmate-protocol-behavior-on-any.html

By default, footnotes are appended at the end of the page with default stylesheet. If you want to change their position, you can define a div with id “footnotes_holder” or define your own stylesheet by turning footnotes stylesheet off:

Footnotes::Filter.no_style = true

Another option is to allow multiple notes to be opened at the same time:

Footnotes::Filter.multiple_notes = true

Finally, you can control which notes you want to show. The default are:

Footnotes::Filter.notes = [:session, :cookies, :params, :filters, :routes, :env, :queries, :log, :general]

Creating your own notes

Create your notes to integrate with Footnotes is easy.

  1. Create a Footnotes::Notes::YourExampleNote class

  2. Implement the necessary methods (check abstract_note.rb file in lib/notes)

  3. Append your example note in Footnotes::Filter.notes array (usually at the end of your environment file or in an initializer):

For example, to create a note that shows info about the user logged in your application you just have to do:

module Footnotes
  module Notes
    class CurrentUserNote < AbstractNote
      # This method always receives a controller
      #
      def initialize(controller)
        @current_user = controller.instance_variable_get("@current_user")
      end

      # The name that will appear as legend in fieldsets
      #
      def legend
        "Current user: #{@current_user.name}"
      end

      # This Note is only valid if we actually found an user
      # If it's not valid, it won't be displayed
      #
      def valid?
        @current_user
      end

      # The fieldset content
      #
      def content
        escape(@current_user.inspect)
      end
    end
  end
end

Then put in your environment:

Footnotes::Filter.notes += [:current_user]

Bugs and Feedback

If you discover any bugs, please send an e-mail to [email protected] If you just want to give some positive feedback or drop a line, that’s fine too! =)

Copyright © 2009 José Valim www.pagestacker.com/ josevalim.blogspot.com/

Version 2.0

Until version 2.0, this plugin was created and maintained by:

Duane Johnson ([email protected]) blog.inquirylabs.com/