heritage 0.1.0

data/.gitignore

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+pkg/*
+*.gem
+.bundle

data/Gemfile

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+source "http://rubygems.org"
+
+# Specify your gem's dependencies in heritage.gemspec
+gemspec

data/README.textile

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+h1. Heritage
+
+Heritage is a gem that implements Multiple Table Inheritance for ActiveRecord models.
+
+h2. Compatability
+
+Heritage has only been tested with Rails 3
+
+h2. Installation
+
+Simply add Heritage to your Gemfile and bundle it up:
+
+<pre>
+  gem 'heritage'
+</pre>
+
+h2. Usage
+
+Heritage works by assigning one model as your @predecessor@, and one or more other models as it's @heir@.
+The predecessor is the parent of it's heirs, and thereby implicitly gives it's heirs access to it's columns, and optionally exposing methods to them.
+
+To mark a model as predecessor, simply use the @acts_as_predecessor@ class-method:
+
+<pre>
+  class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
+    acts_as_predecessor
+  end
+</pre>
+
+To mark a model as heir, simply use the @acts_as_heir_of@ class-method, passing a symbol to the model that is to be the heirs predecessor.
+
+<pre>
+  class BlogPost < ActiveRecord::Base
+    acts_as_heir_of :post
+  end
+</pre>
+
+This takes care of the model configuration. We however need to add two extra columns to the Posts table.
+We need a @heir_id@ column of type @integer@ and a @heir_type@ column of type @string@.
+
+<pre>
+  class CreatePosts < ActiveRecord::Migration
+    def self.up
+      create_table :posts do |t|
+        t.integer :heir_id
+        t.string :heir_type
+        t.string :title
+        t.timestamps
+      end
+    end
+
+    def self.down
+      drop_table :posts
+    end
+  end
+  
+  class CreateBlogPosts < ActiveRecord::Migration
+    def self.up
+      create_table :blog_posts do |t|
+        t.text :body
+      end
+    end
+
+    def self.down
+      drop_table :blog_posts
+    end
+  end
+<end>
+  
+When this is done and the database is migrated, we can begin using the models.
+
+h2. Creating new instances
+
+Now we can simply call the following to create a new @BlogPost@
+
+<pre>
+  blog_post = BlogPost.create(:title => "Wow", :body => "That's a nice blog post!")
+</pre>
+
+Notice that the @title@ attribute belongs to the @Post@ model, and the @body@ attribute belongs to the @BlogPost@ model.
+
+h2. Attributes
+
+We can directly access the @title@ attribute through @BlogPost@ and even change it's value
+
+<pre>
+  blog_post.title # "Wow"
+  blog_post.title = "Oh boy!"
+  blog_post.save!
+  blog_post.title # "Oh boy!"
+</pre>
+
+We can also update attributes like normal through @update_attributes@
+
+<pre>
+  blog_post.update_attributes(:title => "Hubba Hubba", :body => "Nice blog post!")
+  blog_post.title # "Hubba Hubba"
+  blog_post.body # "Nice blog post!"
+</pre>
+
+h2. Methods
+
+If we want to expose some methods from our predecessor model to it's heirs, we can do so when calling the @acts_as_predecessor@ class-method
+
+<pre>
+  class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
+
+    acts_as_predecessor :exposes => :hello
+
+    def hello
+      "Hi there!"
+    end
+
+  end
+</pre>
+
+Now all heirs of @Post@ will have a hello-method, which we can call directly on the heir-model:
+
+<pre>
+  blog_post = BlogPost.create(:title => "I am full", :body => "of methods...")
+  blog_post.hello # "Hi there!"
+</pre>
+
+If you for some reason need to override the method in one of your heir-models, you can simply implement the method, and it will override the method from the predecessor.
+
+<pre>
+  class BlogPost < ActiveRecord::Base
+
+    acts_as_heir_of :post
+
+    def hello
+      "Yo!"
+    end
+
+  end
+</pre>
+
+Calling the @hello@ method on BlogPost will now yield another result:
+
+<pre>
+  blog_post = BlogPost.create(:title => "I have", :body => "my own methods...")
+  blog_post.hello # "Yo!"
+</pre>
+
+If we need to combine the local method in the heir, with the method in the predecessor, we can do so through the @predecessor@ method of the heir model, kinda like you would use @super@.
+
+<pre>
+  class BlogPost < ActiveRecord::Base
+
+    acts_as_heir_of :post
+
+    def hello
+      "Yo! #{predecessor.hello}"
+    end
+
+  end
+</pre>
+
+The result would now be a combination of the local method in the heir, and the method in the predecessor:
+
+<pre>
+  blog_post = BlogPost.create(:title => "I have", :body => "my own methods...")
+  blog_post.hello # "Yo! Hi there!"
+</pre>
+
+h2. Listing and filtering
+
+To list all your wonderful heir models you do as you normally would in ActiveRecord, with one single exception.
+
+Normally you would call something like this, to show all @BlogPosts@
+
+<pre>
+  @posts = BlogPost.all
+</pre>
+
+This however will result in 1 + the number of returned records SQL calls, which is hardly good.
+Instead you need to tell ActiveRecord that it should include the predecessors of the heirs, like so:
+
+<pre>
+  @posts = BlogPost.all(:include => :predecessor)
+</pre>
+
+We now only call the database twice; Once for loading the heirs, and once for loading all referenced predecessors.
+
+Another gotcha is when you need to filter the heirs. You can't directly filter by attributes from the predecessor model.
+So in our example where we have the @title@ attribute in the @Post@ model, we can't do the following:
+
+<pre>
+  @posts = BLogPost.where("title = 'test'")
+</pre>
+
+Instead we need to reference predecessor attributes by the predecessors database-table, like so:
+
+<pre>
+  @posts = BlogPost.where("posts.title = 'test'")
+</pre>
+
+Behind the scenes, heritage works just like a simple ActiveRecord association, so it makes sense.
+
+h2. Timestamps
+
+If all of your heir-models needs timestamps, then you can simply add timestamps to the predecessor model, and omit them from the heir-models.
+Heritage will make sure, that whenever you update your heir-model, the @updated_at@ timestamp in the predecessor model will be updated.
+
+h2. A note on destruction
+
+Heritage depends on the destroy-method of the models, and as such you should always delete predecessor and heir models by calling the @destroy@ method on either, and NEVER by calling the @delete@ or @delete_all@ methods.
+If you absolutely need to do a direct delete in the database, then you need to manually remove the counterpart as well.
+
+For instance, if you manually delete a @BlogPost@ that is heir of @Post@, then you need to first find the right @Post@, then delete the heir and finally delete the predecessor.
+
+h2. Questions, Feedback
+
+Feel free to message me on Github (murui)
+
+h2. Contributing to Heritage
+
+Fork, fix, then send me a pull request.
+
+h2. Credits
+
+Credits goes out to Gerry from TechSpry.com for the idea for this implementation:
+http://techspry.com/ruby_and_rails/multiple-table-inheritance-in-rails-3/
+
+h2. Copyright
+
+Copyright (c) 2011 Benjamin Media A/S
+
+Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
+a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
+"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
+without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
+distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
+permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
+the following conditions:
+
+The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
+included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+
+THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
+EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
+MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
+NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE
+LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION
+OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
+WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

data/Rakefile

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+require 'bundler'
+Bundler::GemHelper.install_tasks

data/heritage.gemspec

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+# -*- encoding: utf-8 -*-
+$:.push File.expand_path("../lib", __FILE__)
+require "heritage/version"
+
+Gem::Specification.new do |s|
+  s.name        = "heritage"
+  s.version     = Heritage::VERSION
+  s.platform    = Gem::Platform::RUBY
+  s.authors     = ["Thomas Dippel"]
+  s.email       = ["thomasdi@benjamin.dk"]
+  s.homepage    = "http://rubygems.org/gems/heritage"
+  s.summary     = %q{A gem for implementing multiple table inheritance in rails 3}
+  s.description = %q{A gem for implementing multiple table inheritance in rails 3}
+
+  s.files         = `git ls-files`.split("\n")
+  s.test_files    = `git ls-files -- {test,spec,features}/*`.split("\n")
+  s.executables   = `git ls-files -- bin/*`.split("\n").map{ |f| File.basename(f) }
+  s.require_paths = ["lib"]
+end

data/heritage_demo/.gitignore

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+.bundle
+db/*.sqlite3
+log/*.log
+tmp/

data/heritage_demo/Gemfile

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+source 'http://rubygems.org'
+
+gem 'rails', '3.0.6'
+
+# Bundle edge Rails instead:
+# gem 'rails', :git => 'git://github.com/rails/rails.git'
+
+gem 'sqlite3'
+gem "heritage", :path => "~/Projects/benjamin/heritage"
+
+# Use unicorn as the web server
+# gem 'unicorn'
+
+# Deploy with Capistrano
+# gem 'capistrano'
+
+# To use debugger (ruby-debug for Ruby 1.8.7+, ruby-debug19 for Ruby 1.9.2+)
+# gem 'ruby-debug'
+# gem 'ruby-debug19', :require => 'ruby-debug'
+
+# Bundle the extra gems:
+# gem 'bj'
+# gem 'nokogiri'
+# gem 'sqlite3-ruby', :require => 'sqlite3'
+# gem 'aws-s3', :require => 'aws/s3'
+
+# Bundle gems for the local environment. Make sure to
+# put test-only gems in this group so their generators
+# and rake tasks are available in development mode:
+# group :development, :test do
+#   gem 'webrat'
+# end

data/heritage_demo/Gemfile.lock

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+PATH
+  remote: ~/Projects/benjamin/heritage
+  specs:
+    heritage (0.0.1)
+
+GEM
+  remote: http://rubygems.org/
+  specs:
+    abstract (1.0.0)
+    actionmailer (3.0.6)
+      actionpack (= 3.0.6)
+      mail (~> 2.2.15)
+    actionpack (3.0.6)
+      activemodel (= 3.0.6)
+      activesupport (= 3.0.6)
+      builder (~> 2.1.2)
+      erubis (~> 2.6.6)
+      i18n (~> 0.5.0)
+      rack (~> 1.2.1)
+      rack-mount (~> 0.6.14)
+      rack-test (~> 0.5.7)
+      tzinfo (~> 0.3.23)
+    activemodel (3.0.6)
+      activesupport (= 3.0.6)
+      builder (~> 2.1.2)
+      i18n (~> 0.5.0)
+    activerecord (3.0.6)
+      activemodel (= 3.0.6)
+      activesupport (= 3.0.6)
+      arel (~> 2.0.2)
+      tzinfo (~> 0.3.23)
+    activeresource (3.0.6)
+      activemodel (= 3.0.6)
+      activesupport (= 3.0.6)
+    activesupport (3.0.6)
+    arel (2.0.9)
+    builder (2.1.2)
+    erubis (2.6.6)
+      abstract (>= 1.0.0)
+    i18n (0.5.0)
+    mail (2.2.15)
+      activesupport (>= 2.3.6)
+      i18n (>= 0.4.0)
+      mime-types (~> 1.16)
+      treetop (~> 1.4.8)
+    mime-types (1.16)
+    polyglot (0.3.1)
+    rack (1.2.2)
+    rack-mount (0.6.14)
+      rack (>= 1.0.0)
+    rack-test (0.5.7)
+      rack (>= 1.0)
+    rails (3.0.6)
+      actionmailer (= 3.0.6)
+      actionpack (= 3.0.6)
+      activerecord (= 3.0.6)
+      activeresource (= 3.0.6)
+      activesupport (= 3.0.6)
+      bundler (~> 1.0)
+      railties (= 3.0.6)
+    railties (3.0.6)
+      actionpack (= 3.0.6)
+      activesupport (= 3.0.6)
+      rake (>= 0.8.7)
+      thor (~> 0.14.4)
+    rake (0.8.7)
+    sqlite3 (1.3.3)
+    thor (0.14.6)
+    treetop (1.4.9)
+      polyglot (>= 0.3.1)
+    tzinfo (0.3.26)
+
+PLATFORMS
+  ruby
+
+DEPENDENCIES
+  heritage!
+  rails (= 3.0.6)
+  sqlite3

data/heritage_demo/README

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+== Welcome to Rails
+
+Rails is a web-application framework that includes everything needed to create
+database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Control pattern.
+
+This pattern splits the view (also called the presentation) into "dumb"
+templates that are primarily responsible for inserting pre-built data in between
+HTML tags. The model contains the "smart" domain objects (such as Account,
+Product, Person, Post) that holds all the business logic and knows how to
+persist themselves to a database. The controller handles the incoming requests
+(such as Save New Account, Update Product, Show Post) by manipulating the model
+and directing data to the view.
+
+In Rails, the model is handled by what's called an object-relational mapping
+layer entitled Active Record. This layer allows you to present the data from
+database rows as objects and embellish these data objects with business logic
+methods. You can read more about Active Record in
+link:files/vendor/rails/activerecord/README.html.
+
+The controller and view are handled by the Action Pack, which handles both
+layers by its two parts: Action View and Action Controller. These two layers
+are bundled in a single package due to their heavy interdependence. This is
+unlike the relationship between the Active Record and Action Pack that is much
+more separate. Each of these packages can be used independently outside of
+Rails. You can read more about Action Pack in
+link:files/vendor/rails/actionpack/README.html.
+
+
+== Getting Started
+
+1. At the command prompt, create a new Rails application:
+       <tt>rails new myapp</tt> (where <tt>myapp</tt> is the application name)
+
+2. Change directory to <tt>myapp</tt> and start the web server:
+       <tt>cd myapp; rails server</tt> (run with --help for options)
+
+3. Go to http://localhost:3000/ and you'll see:
+       "Welcome aboard: You're riding Ruby on Rails!"
+
+4. Follow the guidelines to start developing your application. You can find
+the following resources handy:
+
+* The Getting Started Guide: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html
+* Ruby on Rails Tutorial Book: http://www.railstutorial.org/
+
+
+== Debugging Rails
+
+Sometimes your application goes wrong. Fortunately there are a lot of tools that
+will help you debug it and get it back on the rails.
+
+First area to check is the application log files. Have "tail -f" commands
+running on the server.log and development.log. Rails will automatically display
+debugging and runtime information to these files. Debugging info will also be
+shown in the browser on requests from 127.0.0.1.
+
+You can also log your own messages directly into the log file from your code
+using the Ruby logger class from inside your controllers. Example:
+
+  class WeblogController < ActionController::Base
+    def destroy
+      @weblog = Weblog.find(params[:id])
+      @weblog.destroy
+      logger.info("#{Time.now} Destroyed Weblog ID ##{@weblog.id}!")
+    end
+  end
+
+The result will be a message in your log file along the lines of:
+
+  Mon Oct 08 14:22:29 +1000 2007 Destroyed Weblog ID #1!
+
+More information on how to use the logger is at http://www.ruby-doc.org/core/
+
+Also, Ruby documentation can be found at http://www.ruby-lang.org/. There are
+several books available online as well:
+
+* Programming Ruby: http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/ (Pickaxe)
+* Learn to Program: http://pine.fm/LearnToProgram/ (a beginners guide)
+
+These two books will bring you up to speed on the Ruby language and also on
+programming in general.
+
+
+== Debugger
+
+Debugger support is available through the debugger command when you start your
+Mongrel or WEBrick server with --debugger. This means that you can break out of
+execution at any point in the code, investigate and change the model, and then,
+resume execution! You need to install ruby-debug to run the server in debugging
+mode. With gems, use <tt>sudo gem install ruby-debug</tt>. Example:
+
+  class WeblogController < ActionController::Base
+    def index
+      @posts = Post.find(:all)
+      debugger
+    end
+  end
+
+So the controller will accept the action, run the first line, then present you
+with a IRB prompt in the server window. Here you can do things like:
+
+  >> @posts.inspect
+  => "[#<Post:0x14a6be8
+          @attributes={"title"=>nil, "body"=>nil, "id"=>"1"}>,
+       #<Post:0x14a6620
+          @attributes={"title"=>"Rails", "body"=>"Only ten..", "id"=>"2"}>]"
+  >> @posts.first.title = "hello from a debugger"
+  => "hello from a debugger"
+
+...and even better, you can examine how your runtime objects actually work:
+
+  >> f = @posts.first
+  => #<Post:0x13630c4 @attributes={"title"=>nil, "body"=>nil, "id"=>"1"}>
+  >> f.
+  Display all 152 possibilities? (y or n)
+
+Finally, when you're ready to resume execution, you can enter "cont".
+
+
+== Console
+
+The console is a Ruby shell, which allows you to interact with your
+application's domain model. Here you'll have all parts of the application
+configured, just like it is when the application is running. You can inspect
+domain models, change values, and save to the database. Starting the script
+without arguments will launch it in the development environment.
+
+To start the console, run <tt>rails console</tt> from the application
+directory.
+
+Options:
+
+* Passing the <tt>-s, --sandbox</tt> argument will rollback any modifications
+  made to the database.
+* Passing an environment name as an argument will load the corresponding
+  environment. Example: <tt>rails console production</tt>.
+
+To reload your controllers and models after launching the console run
+<tt>reload!</tt>
+
+More information about irb can be found at:
+link:http://www.rubycentral.com/pickaxe/irb.html
+
+
+== dbconsole
+
+You can go to the command line of your database directly through <tt>rails
+dbconsole</tt>. You would be connected to the database with the credentials
+defined in database.yml. Starting the script without arguments will connect you
+to the development database. Passing an argument will connect you to a different
+database, like <tt>rails dbconsole production</tt>. Currently works for MySQL,
+PostgreSQL and SQLite 3.
+
+== Description of Contents
+
+The default directory structure of a generated Ruby on Rails application:
+
+  |-- app
+  |   |-- controllers
+  |   |-- helpers
+  |   |-- mailers
+  |   |-- models
+  |   `-- views
+  |       `-- layouts
+  |-- config
+  |   |-- environments
+  |   |-- initializers
+  |   `-- locales
+  |-- db
+  |-- doc
+  |-- lib
+  |   `-- tasks
+  |-- log
+  |-- public
+  |   |-- images
+  |   |-- javascripts
+  |   `-- stylesheets
+  |-- script
+  |-- test
+  |   |-- fixtures
+  |   |-- functional
+  |   |-- integration
+  |   |-- performance
+  |   `-- unit
+  |-- tmp
+  |   |-- cache
+  |   |-- pids
+  |   |-- sessions
+  |   `-- sockets
+  `-- vendor
+      `-- plugins
+
+app
+  Holds all the code that's specific to this particular application.
+
+app/controllers
+  Holds controllers that should be named like weblogs_controller.rb for
+  automated URL mapping. All controllers should descend from
+  ApplicationController which itself descends from ActionController::Base.
+
+app/models
+  Holds models that should be named like post.rb. Models descend from
+  ActiveRecord::Base by default.
+
+app/views
+  Holds the template files for the view that should be named like
+  weblogs/index.html.erb for the WeblogsController#index action. All views use
+  eRuby syntax by default.
+
+app/views/layouts
+  Holds the template files for layouts to be used with views. This models the
+  common header/footer method of wrapping views. In your views, define a layout
+  using the <tt>layout :default</tt> and create a file named default.html.erb.
+  Inside default.html.erb, call <% yield %> to render the view using this
+  layout.
+
+app/helpers
+  Holds view helpers that should be named like weblogs_helper.rb. These are
+  generated for you automatically when using generators for controllers.
+  Helpers can be used to wrap functionality for your views into methods.
+
+config
+  Configuration files for the Rails environment, the routing map, the database,
+  and other dependencies.
+
+db
+  Contains the database schema in schema.rb. db/migrate contains all the
+  sequence of Migrations for your schema.
+
+doc
+  This directory is where your application documentation will be stored when
+  generated using <tt>rake doc:app</tt>
+
+lib
+  Application specific libraries. Basically, any kind of custom code that
+  doesn't belong under controllers, models, or helpers. This directory is in
+  the load path.
+
+public
+  The directory available for the web server. Contains subdirectories for
+  images, stylesheets, and javascripts. Also contains the dispatchers and the
+  default HTML files. This should be set as the DOCUMENT_ROOT of your web
+  server.
+
+script
+  Helper scripts for automation and generation.
+
+test
+  Unit and functional tests along with fixtures. When using the rails generate
+  command, template test files will be generated for you and placed in this
+  directory.
+
+vendor
+  External libraries that the application depends on. Also includes the plugins
+  subdirectory. If the app has frozen rails, those gems also go here, under
+  vendor/rails/. This directory is in the load path.