Module: SoftLayer::DynamicAttribute

Included in:
Account, AccountPassword, NetworkMessageDelivery, NetworkMonitor, NetworkService, NetworkStorage, NetworkStorageAllowedHost, NetworkStorageCredential, NetworkStorageGroup, ProductItemCategory, ProductPackage, Server, ServerFirewall, Software, SoftwarePassword, UserCustomer, UserCustomerExternalBinding, VLANFirewall, VirtualDiskImage, VirtualDiskImageSoftware, VirtualServer
Defined in:
lib/softlayer/DynamicAttribute.rb

Overview

This module is intended to be used by classes in the SoftLayer object model. It creates a small DSL for creating attributes that update themselves dynamically (usually by making requests to the SoftLayer API)

sl_dynamic_attr is an implementation of a memoization scheme The module creates a getter which is implemented in terms of a predicate (identifying whether or not the attribute needs to be updated) and an update routine

When the getter is called, it checks the predicate routine to see if the attribute needs to be updated. If it doesn’t, then the getter simply returns the cached value for the attribute. If the attribute does need to be updated, the getter calls the update routine to get a new value and caches that value off before returning it to the caller.

Declaring a attribute adds three methods to a class and a corresponding instance variable in instances of the class All three are based on the name of the attribute:

  • The getter simply has the same name as the attribute

  • The predicate routine is called should_update_<attribute name>?

  • The updating routine is called update_<attribute name>!

The getter can also be called with a boolean argument. If that argument is true, the getter will force the attribute to be updated without consulting the should_update? predicate

When a attribute is defined, the definition takes a block. Inside the block there is a small DSL that allows you to set the behavior of the should_update? predicate and the update_! routine.

A attribute definition might look something like this:

sl_dynamic_attr :lollipop do |lollipop|
  lollipop.should_update? do
    self.lollipop_supply_is_low?
  end

  lollipop.to_update do
    candy_store.buy_lollipops(bakers_dozen)
  end
end

Defined Under Namespace

Modules: ClassMethods Classes: DynamicAttributeDefinition

Class Method Summary collapse

Class Method Details

.included(included_in) ⇒ Object 



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# File 'lib/softlayer/DynamicAttribute.rb', line 150

def self.included(included_in)
  included_in.extend(ClassMethods)
end