Mimicking Rails 3’s ActiveRecord query interface in Rails 2.x
NOTICE: This is only for educational and fun purposes, nothing else. I'm not trying to say that you'll get all the pros of the new query interface in Rails 2.x, it isn't even close.
The first time I used the new ActiveRecord query interface (Rails 3) I started to get boring with the one in Rails 2.x, I can't do anything, I have to use the old query interface since converting my projects from Rails 2 to Rails 3 is not an option, so I thought to make a sort of placebo, just for fun, just to be used in my local console, and here is.
module FakeActiveRecord3Methods
def self.included(base)
base.class_eval do
%w/select group order limit offset joins having/.each do |method|
named_scope method.to_sym, lambda { |arg| { method.to_sym => arg } }
end
named_scope :where, lambda { |arg| { :conditions => arg } }
named_scope :includes, lambda { |arg| { :include => arg } }
end
end
end
Click here to see a Gist in GitHub
I used named scopes because they are chainable, if I would have added instance methods to ActiveRecord::Base it would haven't worked as I want to, maybe there's a way to make it work that way, but this was a 5-minutes module, I didn't want to spent too much time on it.
well, I have to say I don't use this module in production servers, only locally in development mode. This is how I configure my development environment to use it:
In my environment/development.rb
config.after_initialize do
[User, And, All, The, Models, You, Want].each do |model|
model.class_eval do
include FakeActiveRecord3Methods
end
end
end
Click here to see a Gist in GitHub
I add the models I use the most, if I need to use the FakeActiveRecord3Methods module in other model I include it in the console. To make this even easier I added to my ~/.irbrc the following code:
class Class
public :include
end
It allows us to include a module this way:
Profile.include FakeActiveRecord3Methods
otherwise Ruby will throw an exception saying we're trying to access a private method.
It might seem cumbersome to make all of this but it isn't that hard.
It's a shame I won't be able to prove that FakeActiveRecord3Methods works in most of the cases but you can test with the examples shown in Rails Guides: Active Record Querying.
Here are some queries using this module anyways. I think all of them are self-explanatory.
User.select("id, email").limit(2)
=> [#<User id: 1, email: "e@mail.com">, #<User id: 2, email: "bar@foo.com">]
User.select("id, email").where(["created_at > ?", 1.month.ago]).order("email DESC").limit(1)
=> [#<User id: 5, email: "foo@bar.com">
User.limit(5) User.select(:id) User.select(:id).limit(10).offset(100) User.order :created_at
Joins
users = User.select("users.id, profiles.company").joins(:profile)
users.first.company # => Foo Company
users.first.profile.company # => Foo Company
Includes
users = User.limit(10) users.first.name # => Foo users.first.profile.company # => it will query the database users = User.includes(:profile).limit(10) # it will bring the profile as well users.first.profile.company # it won't query the database
Of course, you should be aware that in named scopes the order really matters, be careful and remember, in Rails 3, the where, select, group, order, limit, offset, joins and includes returns an instance of ActiveRecord::Relation which is not the case in the FakeActiveRecord3Methods module, it returns an instance of ActiveRecord::NamedScope::Scope and that's because named scopes returns an instance of such class.
By the way, if you want to read the Rails 2's ActiveRecord Query Interface, you can do so clicking here
Thanks for reading.
MUSh, a multi-service URL shortener in Ruby
I have to tell the truth, I'm really lazy, if there is a way to avoid to do something I will do so.
What about avoiding to open a browser or create a new tab and click a bookmark or type the address of a URL shortener service when I want to shorten a URL? If I have an opened terminal with IRb and Bash almost the whole day, why don't use it to shorten URLs?
Using the most pure principles of LDD (Laziness-Driven Development) I've created a gem called MUSh, a Multi-service URL Shortener, hence the name.
Yes, I know there are thousands of API wrappers in Ruby for bit.ly, etc. but most of them are fully-featured API wrappers and I didn't want all of those features, I just wanted to shorten URLs, that's it, well, I wanted command-line utilities as well, but I didn't find them in any existing gem.
I've been using MUSh for almost a month now, and it really helps me, that's why I decided to release it as a gem, if you want to install it just do it this way:
$ sudo gem install mush
It currently supports bit.ly, is.gd and u.nu services and it have one command-line utility per service:
$ isgd foo.raflabs.com $ bitly -l your_login -k your_apikey -u foo.raflabs.com $ owly -k your_apikey -u foo.raflabs.com
Hum, the last command doesn't help that much. I know. MUSh currently doesn't support storing your credentials so I use an alias.
In your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc:
alias bitly='bitly -l your_login -k your_apikey' alias owly='owly -k your_apikey'
after adding your alias issue the following command to refresh your terminal or close it an open another one:
$ source ~/.bash_profile (or whatever is your file called)
and now you'll be able to use the bitly and owly commands without specifying your credentials, even without specifying the -u option.
$ bitly foo.raflabs.com $ owly foo.raflabs.com
But what if I want to shorten an URL with a service MUSh doesn't support? If the service you want to use has an API that supports sending parameters via GET and returns only the shortened URL without any HTML code then you're in luck because you can use custom services in MUSh, let's see it:
From command-line:
$ shorten -s "http://service.url?params&url={{url}}" -u long_url.com
From a Ruby script
custom = Mush::Services::Custom.new
custom.set_service = "http://service.url?params&url={{url}}"
custom.shorten "long_url.com"
The {{url}} piece of code is a placeholder to let MUSh know where the service is expecting the long url, it's that easy.
If you're in a Mac and want to copy the shortened URL in one step, just use the pbcopy command:
$ bitly foo.raflabs.com | pbcopy
Then paste it with Cmd-V or with the pbpaste command.
MUSh was made in Ruby, so you can use it in your Ruby applications as well.
Bit.ly
bitly = Mush::Services::Bitly.new bitly.login = "your_login" bitly.apikey = "your_apikey" bitly.shorten "http://foo.raflabs.com" # => http://bit.ly/bJO5IH
Is.gd
isgd = Mush::Services::IsGd.new isgd.shorten "http://foo.raflabs.com" # => http://is.gd/eFZXc
ow.ly
owly = Mush::Services::Owly.new owly.apikey = 'your_api_key' owly.shorten "http://foo.raflabs.com"
Besides, If you want to shorten a URL in your Ruby or Rails console in a fast way add the following to your ~/.irbrc:
require 'mush' def by(url) bitly = Mush::Services::Bitly.new bitly.login = "your_login" bitly.apikey = "your_apikey" bitly.shorten url end def is(url) Mush::Services::IsGd.new.shorten url end def ow(url) owly = Mush::Services::Owly.new owly.apikey = 'your_api_key' owly.shorten url end
An use it like this
by "google.com" is "google.com" ow "google.com"
It's a nice set of shortcuts, I'd say.
Again, if you're in a Mac and want to copy the shortened URL in one step, just use my pasteboaRb gem:
$ sudo gem install pasteboaRb
Basically, pasteboaRb adds to_pb and paste methods to the Object class.
is("foo.raflabs.com").to_pb # => http://is.gd/eFZXc
Then paste it in any Mac application with Cmd-V, in the Terminal with the pbpaste command or in a Ruby terminal with the paste method.
paste # => http://is.gd/eFZXc
Thanks for reading.