Lev

Lev is an attempt to improve Rails by:

Providing a better, more structured, and more organized way to implement code features
De-emphasizing the "model is king" mindset when appropriate

Rails' MVC-view of the world is very compelling and provides a sturdy scaffold with which to create applications quickly. However, sometimes it can lead to business logic code getting a little spread out. When trying to figure out where to best put business logic, you often hear folks recommending "fat models" and "skinny controllers". They are saying that the business logic of your app should live in the model classes and not in the controllers. While it is a good idea that logic not live in the controllers, it shouldn't always live in the models either, especially when that logic touches multiple models.

When all of the business logic lives in the models, some bad things can happen:

your models can become bloated with code that only applies to certain features
your models end up knowing way too much about other models, sometimes multiple hops away
your business logic gets spread all over the place. The execution of one "feature" can jump between bits of code in multiple models, their various ActiveRecord life cycle callbacks (before_create, etc), and their associated observers.

Lev introduces two main constructs to get around these issues: Routines and Handlers.

Routines

Lev's Routines are pieces of code that have all the responsibility for making one thing (one use case) happen, e.g. "add an email to a user", "register a student to a class", etc), normally acting on objects from more than one model.

Routines...

Can call other routines
Have a common error reporting framework
Run within a single transaction with a controllable isolation level

In an OO/MVC world, an operation that involves multiple objects might be implemented by spreading that logic among those objects. However, that leads to classes having more responsibilities than they should (and more knowlege of other classes than they should) as well as making the code hard to follow.

Routines typically don't have any persistent state that is used over and over again; they are created, used, and forgotten. A routine is a glorified function with a special single-responsibility purpose.

A class becomes a routine by calling lev_routine in its definition, e.g.:

class MyRoutine
  lev_routine
  ...

Other than that, all a routine has to do is implement an "exec" method (typically protected) that takes arbitrary arguments and that adds errors to an internal array-like "errors" object and outputs to a "outputs" hash. Two convenience methods are provided for adding errors:

Errors can be recorded in a number of ways. You can manually add errors to the built-in errors object:

errors.add(true, code: :search_terms_incorrect)

The first parameter to the add call says whether or not the error should be fatal for the running of the routine (no more work should be done and the transaction should be rolled back). Otherwise, the arguments after that are a hash that can contain values for the following keys:

:code A symbol indicating the kind of error that occurred
:data Any data that is useful for understanding the error (:code-specific)
:kind If you don't set this, it will default to :lev for Lev-generated errors, and :activerecord for ActiveRecord-generated errors
:message A human-readable error message
:offending_inputs An array of symbols indicating which inputs caused the error (if any); if there is only one symbol, you can specify it as a lone symbol instead of a symbol in a one-element array.

Two convenience methods are also provided for adding errors: fatal_error and nonfatal_error. These have the same interface as errors#add except they provide the first is_fatal boolean argument for you. In its current implementation, nonfatal_error may still cause a routine higher up in the execution hierarchy to halt running.

Here's an example setting an error and an output:

class MyRoutine
  lev_routine

protected
  def exec(foo, options={})  # whatever arguments you want here
    fatal_error(code: :some_code_symbol) if foo.nil?
    outputs[:bar] = foo * 2
  end
end

If you'd like the fatal_error to raise a StandardError immediately instead of bubbling up to the Lev::Routine#errors object, you must configure it:

Lev.configure do |config|
  config.raise_fatal_errors = true
end

So if you fatal_error(name: :is_blank) it will raise StandardError: "name is blank", or fatal_error(thing: :is_broken, and: :messed_up) it will raise StandardError: "thing is broken - and messed up"

You can override the global setting in your routine, which also overrides nested routine settings:

# initializer
Lev.configure do |config|
  config.raise_fatal_errors = false
end

# app/routines/my_routine.rb
class MyRoutine
  lev_routine raise_fatal_errors: true

  uses_routine Tasks::MyTaskRoutine # Still raises despite its setting
end


# app/subroutines/tasks/my_task_routine.rb
module Tasks
  class MyTaskRoutine
    lev_routine raise_fatal_errors: false
  end
end

Additionally, see below for a discussion on how to transfer errors from ActiveRecord models.

If an exception is raised in a routine, it will bubble out. It will also fail the job status and add information about the exception to the job error list.

Relatedly, a convenience method is provided if the caller wants to raise an exception if there were any errors returned (whether or not they themselves were caused by an exception)

result = MyRoutine.call(42)
result.errors.raise_exception_if_any!(MyFavoriteError)

By default raise_exception_if_any! will raise a StandardError with a message containing the concatenated messages of the errors. You can pass a different exception class to this method to use something other than StandardError.

A routine will automatically get both class- and instance-level call methods that take the same arguments as the exec method. The class-level call method simply instantiates a new instance of the routine and calls the instance-level call method (side note here is that this means that routines aren't typically instantiated with state).

When called, a routine returns a Result object, which is just a simple wrapper of the outputs and errors objects.

result = MyRoutine.call(42)
puts result.outputs[:bar]    # => 84

Nesting Routines

As mentioned above, routines can call other routines. While this is of course possible just by calling the other routine's call method directly, it is strongly recommended that one routine call another routine using the provided run method. This method takes the name of the routine class and the arguments/block it expects in its call/exec methods. By using the run method, the called routine will be hooked into the common error and transaction mechanisms.

When one routine is called within another using the run method, there is only one transaction used (barring any explicitly made in the code) and its isolation level is sufficiently strict for all routines involved.

It is highly recommend, though not required, to call the uses_routine method to let the routine know which subroutines will be called within it. This will let a routine set its isolation level appropriately, and will enforce that only one transaction be used and that it be rolled back appropriately if any errors occur.

Once a routine has been registered with the uses_routine call, it can be run by passing run the routine's Class or a symbol identifying the routine. This symbol can be set with the :as option. If not set, the symbol will be automatically set by converting the routine class' full name to a symbol. e.g:

uses_routine CreateUser
             as: :cu

and then you can call this routine with any of the following:

run(:cu, ...)
run(:create_user, ...)
run(CreateUser, ...)
CreateUser.call(...) (not recommended)

Errors from Nested Routines

uses_routine also provides a way to specify how errors relate to routine inputs. Take the following example. A User model calls Routine1 which calls Routine2.

User --> Routine1.call(foo: "abcd4") --> Routine2.call(bar: "abcd4")

An error occurs in Routine2, and Routine2 notes that the error is related to its bar input. If that error and its metadata bubble up to the User, the User won't have any idea what bar relates to -- the User only knows about the interface to Routine1 and the foo parameter it gave it.

Routine1 knows that it will call Routine2 and knows what its interface is. It can then specify how to map terminology from Routine2 into Routine1's context. E.g., in the following class:

class Routine1
  lev_routine
  uses_routine Routine2,
               translations: {
                 inputs: { map: {bar: :foo} }
               }
  def exec(options)
    run(Routine2, bar: options[:foo])
  end
end

Routine1 notes that any errors coming back from the call to Routine2 related to :bar should be transfered into Routine1's errors object as being related to :foo. In this way, the caller of Routine1 will see errors related to the arguments he understands.

In addition to the map: configuration for input transferral, there are three other configurations:

Scoped - Appends the provided scoping symbol (or symbol array) to the input symbol.

{scope: SCOPING_SYMBOL_OR_SYMBOL_ARRAY}

e.g. with {scope: :register} and a call to a routine that has an input named :first_name, an error in that called routine related to its :first_name input will be translated so that the offending input is [:register, :first_name].
Verbatim - Uses the same term in the caller as the callee.

{type: :verbatim}
Mapped - Give an explicit, custom mapping:

{map: {called_input1: caller_input1, called_input2: :caller_input2}}
Scoped and mapped - Give an explicit mapping, and also scope the translated terms. Just use scope: and map: from above in the same hash.

If an input translation is unspecified, the default is scoped, with SCOPING_SYMBOL_OR_ARRAY equal to the as: option passed to uses_routine, if provided, or if that is not provided then the symbolized name of the routine class. E.g. for:

class MyRoutine
  lev_routine
  uses_routine OtherRoutine, as: :jimmy

an errors generated on the foo input in OtherRoutine will be transferred up to MyRoutine with a [:jimmy, :foo] scope. If the as: :jimmy option were not specified, the transferred error would have a [:other_routine, :foo] scope.

Via the uses_routine call, you can also ignore specified errors that occur in the called routine. e.g.:

uses_routine DestroyUser,
             ignored_errors: [:cannot_destroy_non_temp_user]

ignores errors with the provided code. The ignore_errors key must point to an array of code symbols or procs. If a proc is given, the proc will be called with the error that the routine is trying to add. If the proc returns true, the error will be ignored.

Outputs from Nested Routines

In addition to errors being transferred from subroutines to calling routines, a subroutine's outputs are also automatically transferred to the calling routine's "outputs" hash. Exactly how they are transferred is configurable with the same 4 options as input transferals, e.g.:

class Routine1
  lev_routine
  uses_routine Routine2,
               translations: {
                 outputs: { type: :verbatim }
               }

  def exec(options)
    run(Routine2, bar: options[:foo])
    # Assuming Routine2 generates an output named "x", then outputs[:x] will be
    # available as of this line
  end
end

If the output translations are not specified, they will be scoped exactly like how input translations are scoped by default.

Note if multiple outputs are transferred into the same named output (e.g. by calling the same routine over and over in a loop), an array of those outputs will be stored under that name.

Overriding `uses_routine` Options

Any option passed to uses_routine can also be passed directly to the run method. To achieve this, pass an array as the first argument to "run". The array should have the routine class or symbol as the first argument, and the hash of options as the second argument. Options passed in this manner override any options provided in uses_routine (though those options are still used if not replaced in the run call). For example:

class ARoutine
  lev_routine
  uses_routine BRoutine

protected
  def exec(...)
    run([ BRoutine, {translations: {outputs: {type: :verbatim}}} ])
  end
end

transfer_errors_from

When errors are captured inside an ActiveRecord errors object, you can use transfer_errors_from to pull them into the routine errors object. This method takes three arguments:

The ActiveRecord instance that may have errors to transfer.
A hash describing how to map the error message, using the same options passed to the input translations in a uses_routine call, e.g. transfer_errors_from(myModel, {type: :verbatim}).
A flag that if true will cause the routine to fail fatally if there are any errors transferred.

Specifying Transaction Isolations

A routine is automatically run within a transaction. The isolation level of the routine can be set by passing a :transaction option to the lev_routine call (or to the lev_handler call, if appropriate). The value must be one of the following:

:no_transaction
:read_uncommitted
:read_committed
:repeatable_read
:serializable

Note that by setting an isolation level, you are stating the minimum isolation level at which a routine must be run. When routines are nested inside each other, the highest-specified isolation level from any one of them is used in the one transaction in which all of a routines' subroutines run.

For example, if you write a routine that does a complex query, you might not need any transaction:

class MyQueryRoutine
  lev_routine transaction: :no_transaction

If unspecified, the default isolation is :repeatable_read.

delegate_to_routine

Sometimes you'll want to override standard ActiveRecord methods in a model so that they use a routine instead of the default implementation. For this, inside of that ActiveRecord model you can call the class method delegate_to_routine, which takes two key-value pairs:

:method A symbol for the instance method to override (e.g. :destroy)
:options A hash of options including:
- :routine_class The class of the routine to delegate to; if not given, the class is autocomputed by concatenating the provided :method with the model class name.

When delegate_to_routine is called, the provided method will call the routine and the overriden method will be aliased to the original name with _original appended to it. For example:

class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
  delegate_to_routine method: :destroy
end

will alias the old destroy method as destroy_original and add a new destroy method that calls the DestroyProduct routine.

Express Calling of Routines

Routines commonly return one output. These routines are often named things like GetUserEmail or IsFinalized. Particularly for boolean queries like IsBlahBlah, it is onerous to say:

if IsBlahBlah.call(arg1, arg2).outputs.some_output_containing_the_true_false_value

As a convenience, routines can be called "expressly" (as in compactly) using the bracket operator. For example with the following routine:

class AreArgumentsEqual
  lev_routine

  def exec(arg1, arg2)
    outputs[:are_arguments_equal] = (arg1 == arg2)
  end
end

you could call it in the normal way:

if AreArgumentsEqual.call(201, 202).outputs.are_arguments_equal
  # do something
end

or you can call it using brackets:

if AreArgumentsEqual[201, 202]
  # do something
end

When using this bracket style of calling routines, Lev assumes that the value to be returned is named with the underscored version of the routine name, e.g. AreArgumentsEqual has a default return value of are_arguments_equal. Module names are disregarded when computing the default name.

The express_output can be overriden:

class AreArgumentsEqual
  lev_routine, express_output: :answer

  def exec(arg1, arg2)
    outputs[:answer] = (arg1 == arg2)
  end
end

When calling with the bracket operator, any errors accumulated by the routine are raised in an exception (have to do this since you have no other way to pay attention to the errors).

Delegates

If you have

class BarRoutine
  lev_routine

  def exec(alpha:, beta:)
    # Do work
  end
end

you might have a reason to wrap this routine inside another, in which case you could write:

class FooRoutine
  lev_routine

  uses_routine BarRoutine,
               translations: {
                 outputs: { type: :verbatim },
                 inputs: { type: :verbatim }
               }

  def exec(alpha:, beta:)
    run(BarRoutine, alpha: alpha, beta: beta)
  end
end

or if you use the delegates_to: shortcut, you can instead equivalently wrap BarRoutine with:

class ShorterFooRoutine
  lev_routine delegates_to: BarRoutine
end

When using delegates_to, any express_output value set in the delegated routine is automatically used again by the delegating routine.

Other Routine Methods

Routine class have access to a few other methods:

a runner accessor which points to the routine which called it. If runner is nil that means that no other routine called it (some other code did)
a topmost_runner accessor which points to the highest routine in the calling hierarchy (that routine whose 'runner' is nil)

Calling routines as ActiveJobs

If ActiveJob is included in your project, you can invoke a routine to be run in the background. E.g. instead of saying

MyRoutine.call(arg1: 23, arg2: 'howdy')

You can say

MyRoutine.perform_later(arg1: 23, arg2: 'howdy')

By default jobs are placed in the :default queue, but you can override this in the lev_routine call:

class MyRoutine
  lev_routine active_job_enqueue_options: { queue: :some_other_queue }
end

Routines run as ActiveJobs can also publish their status somewhere it can be listened to (e.g. to Redis).

Routines have a status object and can call the following methods:

set_progress(at, out_of = nil) sets the current progress; can either pass a float between 0.0 and 1.0 or a counter towards a total, e.g. set_progress(67,212).
queued! Sets the state to 'queued'
started! Sets the state to 'working'
succeeded! Sets the state to 'succeeded'
failed! Sets the state to 'failed'
killed! Sets the state to 'killed'
save(hash) Takes a hash of key value pairs and writes those keys and values to the status; there are several reserved keys which cannot be used (and which will blow up if you try to use them)
add_error(error) takes a Lev Error object and adds its data to an array of errors in the job status hash.

Routine status objects also have query methods to check if a status is in a given state, e.g. queued?. completed? and incomplete convenience methods are provided as well. A status is complete if it is failed or succeeded; incomplete if neither. All job routines start in an unqueued state and will only stay there if queueing had a problem. Scope-like class methods are provided to return all statuses in a given state.

For plain vanilla routines not run as an active job, the status calls are no-ops. When a routine is invoked with perform_later, the status object is created/found using two configuration options that must be set (if you care about the status):

class SomeRoutine
  lev_routine use_jobba: true
  # This is the same as:
  # self.create_status_proc = ->(*) { Jobba::Status.create! }
  # self.find_status_proc = ->(id) { Jobba::Status.find!(id) }
end

See the Jobba README for full details on the status objects.

Handlers

Handlers are specialized routines that take user input (e.g. form data) and then take an action based on that input. Because all Handlers are Routines, everything discussed above applies to them.

Handlers...

Help you verify that the calling user is authorized to run the handler
Provide ways to validate incoming parameters in a very ActiveModel-like way (even when the parameters are not associated with a model)
Can call other Routines using uses_routine and run
Map one-to-one with controller actions; by keeping the logic in each controller action encapsulated in a Handler, the code becomes independently-testable and also prevents the controller from being "fat" with 7 different actions all containing disparate logic touching different models.

A class becomes a handler by calling lev_handler in its definition, e.g.:

class MyHandler
  lev_handler
  ...

Additionally, a handler must implement two instance methods:

handle, which takes no arguments and does the work the handler is charged with
authorized?, which returns true if and only if the caller is authorized to do what the handler is charged with

Handlers may...

implement the setup instance method which runs before authorized? and handle. This method can do anything, and will likely include setting up some instance objects based on the params.
call the class method paramify to declare, cast, and validate parts of the params hash. See below for more on this.

Any options passed in to a handler's call method are made available within the handler via an options attribute. If this options hash includes values for :params, :caller, and :request these values will be available within the code you write by accessors with the same names. These values are expected to contain the request params, the caller (whatever your application defines as current_user), and the entire HTTP request. See the handle_with method below for an easy way to pass these options to your handler.

Additionally, the handler provides attributes to return the errors object and the results object.

The handle method that you define should not return anything; they just set values in the errors and results objects. The documentation for each handler should explain what the results will be and any nonstandard data required to be passed in in the options.

In addition to the class- and instance-level call methods provided by Lev::Routine, Handlers have a class-level handle method (an alias of the class-level call method). The convention for handlers is that the call methods (and this class-level handle method) take a hash of options/inputs. The instance-level handle method doesn't take any arguments since the arguments have been stored as instance variables by the time the instance-level handle method is called.

Example:

class MyHandler
  lev_handler
protected
  def authorized?
    # return true iff exec is allowed to be called, e.g. might
    # check the caller against the params
  def handle
    # do the work, add errors to errors object and results to the results hash as needed
  end
end

paramify

By declaring one or more paramify blocks in a handler, you can declare, group, cast, and validate parts of the params hash. Think of paramify as a way to declare an ad-hoc ActiveModel class to wrap incoming parameters. Normally, you only get easy validation of input parameters when those parameters are passed to an application model that is validated during a save. paramify lets you do this for any arbitrary collection of incoming parameters without requiring those parameters to live in application models.

The first argument to paramify is the key in params which points to a hash of params to be paramified. If this first argument is unspecified (or specified as :paramify, a reserved symbol), the entire params hash will be paramified. The block passed to paramify looks just like the guts of an ActiveAttr model.

For example, when the incoming params includes :search => :terms, :num_results, the paramify block might look like:

paramify :search do
  attribute :type, type: String
  validates :type, presence: true,
                   inclusion: { in: %w(Name Username Any),
                                message: "is not valid" }

  attribute :terms, type: String
  validates :terms, presence: true

  attribute :num_results, type: Integer
  validates :num_results, numericality: { only_integer: true,
                                          greater_than_or_equal_to: 0 }
end

This will result in a search_params variable being available. search_params.num_results would be guaranteed to be an integer greater than or equal to zero. Note that if you want to use a "Boolean" type, you need to type it with a lowercase (type: boolean).

The following is a more complete example using the paramify block above:

class MyHandler
  lev_handler

  paramify :search do
    attribute :type, type: String
    validates :type, presence: true,
                     inclusion: { in: %w(Name Username Any),
                                  message: "is not valid" }

    attribute :terms, type: String
    validates :terms, presence: true

    attribute :num_results, type: Integer
    validates :num_results, numericality: { only_integer: true,
                                            greater_than_or_equal_to: 0 }
  end

  def handle
    # By this time, if there were any errors the handler would have
    # already populated the errors object and returned.
    #
    # Paramify makes a 'search_params' attribute available through
    # which you can access the paramified params, e.g.
    x = search_params.num_results
    ...
  end
end

handle_with

handle_with is a utility method for calling handlers from controllers. To use it, call include Lev::HandleWith in your relevant controllers (or in your ApplicationController):

class ApplicationController
  include Lev::HandleWith
  ...
end

Then, call handle_with from your various controller actions, e.g.:

handle_with(MyFormHandler,
            params: params,
            success: lambda { redirect_to 'show', notice: 'Success!'},
            failure: lambda { render 'new', alert: 'Error' })

handle_with takes care of calling the handler and populates a @handler_result object with results and errors from running the handler.

The 'success' and 'failure' lambdas are called if there aren't or are errors, respectively. Alternatively, if you supply a 'complete' lambda, that lambda will be called regardless of whether there are any errors. Inside these lambdas (and inside the views they connect to), the @handler_outcome variable containing the errors and results from the handler will be available.

Specifying 'params' is optional. If you don't specify it, handle_with will use the entire params hash from the request.

Handlers help us clean up controllers in our Rails projects. Instead of having a different piece of application logic in every controller action, a Lev-oriented app's controllers just end up being responsible for connecting routes to handlers, normally via a quick call to handle_with.

lev_form_for

Lev also provides a lev_form_for form builder to replace form_for. This builder integrates well with the error reporting infrastructure in routines and handlers, and in general is a nice way to get away from forms that are very single-model-centric.

The first argument passed to lev_form_for is a symbol that scopes the form fields. In a normal form_for, the :url for the form is autodetermined based on the model instance passed in; since there is no model for lev_form_for, you'll need to specify the :url option. Beyond that, any options you can pass to form_for you can pass to lev_form_for.

Consider the following example:

<%= lev_form_for :register, url: '/users/register', html: {id: 'register-form'} do |f| %>
  <p>Please choose a username and password.</p>

  <label>Username</label>
  <%= f.text_field :username %>

  <label>First Name</label>
  <%= f.text_field :first_name %>

  <label>Password</label>
  <%= f.password_field :password %>

  <label>Password (again)</label>
  <%= f.password_field :password_confirmation %>

  <%= f.submit "Register", id: "register_submit" %>
<% end %>

Here, the form parameters will include

:register => {:username => 'bob79', :first_name => 'Bob', :password => 'password', :password_confirmation => 'password'}

A route could direct the URL above to a controller action:

post '/users/register', to: 'users#register'

The UsersController could then connect this route to a handler:

class UsersController < ApplicationController
  include Lev::HandleWith

  def register
    handle_with(UsersRegister,
                success: lambda { redirect_to root_path },
                failure: lambda { render :new })
  end
end

And then the UsersRegister handler would exist to process the form parameters and take action.

class UsersRegister
  lev_handler

  paramify :register do
    attribute :username, type: String
    attribute :first_name, type: String
    attribute :password, type: String
    attribute :password_confirmation, type: String

    validates :username, presence: true    # simple validation as an example
                                           # in this case validation really done
                                           # in activerecord User model
  end

  uses_routine CreateUser,
               translations: { inputs: {scope: :register} }

protected

  def authorized?
    caller.is_anonymous?
  end

  def handle
    run(CreateUser, first_name:            register_params.first_name,
                    username:              register_params.username,
                    password:              register_params.password,
                    password_confirmation: register_params.password_confirmation)
  end
end

In the above handler, if the username is blank, the validation in the paramify block will catch it and add a fatal error to the handler's result object. This will cause the failure block in handle_with to be triggered, and lev_form_for will watch for these errors in the @handler_result object and mark offending input fields with a configurable CSS class (default to 'error'). If an error occurs during the run of CreateUser, the error will be translated back under a :register scope (from the call in uses_routine), and the error will also be appropriately traced using lev_form_for.

If the handler runs error free, the success block will be triggered.

Writing Models in a Lev-enabled Project

A decision to use Lev means you're interested in following the philosophy of "skinny models, skinny controllers". To achieve "skinny model" zen, we recommend that models obey the following principles:

They should hook into the ORM (i.e., inherit from ActiveRecord::Base)
They should establish relationships to other models (e.g. belongs_to, has_many, including dependent: :destroy)
They should validate internal state
1. They should not validate state in related models
2. They can run limited validations on associations (e.g. checking the presence of relationship, checking that a foreign key is present, etc)
They can perform queries when those queries only use internal model state (i.e. arguments to queries should be in the language of the model state)
The can create records when those creations only need values internal to this model and take arguments in the language of the internal model state.
They should avoid ActiveRecord lifecycle callbacks (and similarly, Observers) except when the callbacks only work on internal model state. Such callbacks are only good for entangling what should be simple model code in complex code features.
They should avoid doing any cross-model work.

When these guidelines are followed, model classes end up being very small and simple. This is good because:

Small, simple code tends to be more stable code (and since a lot of code depends on the models, stable is a very good thing)
The models are easy to mock and use in feature tests (not worrying about some random before_create callback added for some other random feature)

Naming Conventions

As mentioned above, a handler is intended to replace the logic in one controller action. As such, one convention that works well is to name a handler based on the controller name and the action name, e.g. for the ProductsController#show action, we would have a handler named ProductsShow.

Routines on the other hand are more or less glorified functions that work with multiple models to get something done, so we typically start their names with verbs, e.g. CreateUser, SetPassword, ConfirmEmail, etc.

Differences between Lev and Rails' Concerns

Both Lev and Concerns remove lines of code from models, but the major difference between the two is that with Concerns, the code still lives logically in the models whereas code in Lev is completely outside of and separate from the models.

Lev's routines (and handlers) know about models, but the models don't know anything about nor are they dependent on the code in routines*. This makes the models simpler and more stable (a Good Thing).

Since a Concern's code is essentially embedded in model code, if that Concern breaks it can potentially break other unrelated features, something that can't happen with routines.

Routines are especially good when some use case needs to query or change multiple models. With a routine all of the logic for that use case is in one file. With a concern, that code could be in multiple models and multiple concerns.

(* one small exception is delegate_to_routine)

Why do we need handlers?

Ever had a form you wanted to make that didn't map right onto a model? Maybe the form needed to deal with two different models and some random text fields. With a handler, you can pass all of those fields in form_for style, then use active record type validations in the handler to check those inputs (or pass along to the models to have them run their validations).

Routines and handlers also have a built-in error handling mechanism and they run within a single transaction with a controllable isolation level.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'lev'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install lev

Contributing

Fork it
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
Create new Pull Request

Lev