sentient_model

sentient_model is simple piece of code trying to solve a common problem.

Imagine you are writing an authentication system for Ruby on Rails. Usually you would define a method called current_user in your ApplicationController and expose it to your views and so on (which is fine in most cases).

However, if you need current_user in locations where you can't easily expose the method, sentient_model is the perfect solution. Instead of manually exposing current_user, you would just rely on User.current. sentient_model's methods are globally accessible - therefore you don't have to worry about anything - it just works.

This Gem has been inspired by David Bock's sentient_user.

Usage

Define your models as usual and include the module SentientModel:

class YourModel
  include SentientModel
  # more code such as validations or associations
end

By including SentientModel, the following methods are added to your model:

YourModel#make_current # instance method - makes the callee object the sentient object
YourModel#current?     # instance method - true if the callee is the current sentient object or false otherwise
YourModel.current      # class method    - returns the sentient object or nil
YourModel.current=(m)  # class method    - sets the sentient object to the supplied argument (must be an instance of YourModel)
YourModel.has_current? # class method    - true if a sentient object defined or false otherwise 

Compatibility

  • MRI Ruby 1.8.7
  • MRI Ruby 1.9.2
  • JRuby 1.6

How to contribute?

  1. Fork on GitHub.
  2. Make sure, that all specs are still passing (run rake spec).
  3. Send Pull Request.

Copyright ©2011 Christoph Schiessl. See LICENSE for details.