how to properly extend ActionController in rails plugin - ruby-on-rails

I'm writing a Rails plugin (lets call it Foo).
I want it to provide 'bar' class function in controllers, so that I can do:
class ApplicationController
bar ...
end
bar is defined from withing the plugin loading file vendor/plugins/foo/init.rb. Something like
class ActionController::Base
def self.bar
...
end
end
The problem is that some other plugins (in my case ResourceController) might load before foo and access ApplicationController.
So what happens is that ApplicationController is loaded before the plugin 'foo' and fails since there is no 'bar' defined YET.
So ... how do I properly make it work works?
I noticed that many other plugins that extend ActionController (for example inherited_resources, resource_controller, ) are doing exactly the same, so it seems its a matter of who loads first to decide if it fails or works.
I know that I can put code in some module and manually add the module to ApplicationController code before calling 'foo'. I'd rather not, I like the cleanliness of just 'foo'.
I also don't want to do a manual 'require'. Plugins are supposed to be auto-loaded all by themselves :)

What you have is a classic plugin load order problem. Ryan Daigle had a nice article on this back in 2007. I'll sum up the recommendation here:
# in RAILS_ROOT/config/environment.rb:
...
Rails::Initializer.run do |config|
# load Bar before Foo, then everything else:
config.plugins = [ :bar, :foo, :all ]
...
end

From what I understand,
ResourceController loads before plugin foo and tries to use the bar method you have defined in foo.
Usually, gems and plugins are loaded before application classes. (Take a look at rails/railties/lib/initializer.rb). Could you provide a stack-trace of the error so that one can debug this.
Also, for extending the classes, this seems a better alternative to me:
module ActionController
class Base
class << self
... # Class methods here
end
... # Instance methods here
end
end

Related

Dynamic concerns with inheritance not loading twice, but only once

We are loading code dynamically with concerns, based on some environment variables, which works pretty nice.
Something like this:
# User class
class User
include DynamicConcern
end
module DynamicConcern
extend ActiveSupport::Concern
included do
if "Custom::#{ENV["CUSTOMER_NAME"].camelize}::#{self.name}Concern".safe_constantize
include "Custom::#{ENV["CUSTOMER_NAME"].camelize}::#{self.name}Concern".constantize
end
end
end
# custom code
module Custom::Custom123::UserConcern
extend ActiveSupport::Concern
included do
...
end
end
We are using this since years and it worked absolutely fine in models. Some days ago we tried to use the same approach with Controllers, but realized that this approach doesn'
t work fine with inheritance, where the parent class inherits the concern as well as the inherited class:
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
# this gets loaded and includes the right dynamic module
include DynamicConcern
end
class ShopController < ApplicationController
# this is NOT getting loaded again and skipped,
# since it has been loaded already in the parent controller
include DynamicConcern
end
Is there a way to tell rails that it should include/evaluade the concern a second time, since the second time it would have another class name which would include another module?
I'm not looking for other solutions, since a lot of our code is based on this approach and I think it's possible to solve this without rewriting everything.
Thanks!
You are only trying to dynamically include modules based on the class name.
It's not necessary to make a concern but it can be a normal class, and the include action can be a normal method. Every time you want to call it, just call it like any other method.
Because you have already written your code with ActiveSupport::Concern in an include fashion. I guess the following refactor may work even though I cannot guarantee it. The idea is simple:
Just make it a normal method with the target class as the parameter. You can include it (it automatically calls dynamic_include in included hook).
If the module is already included in the ancestor hierarchy chain, just invoke the dynamic_include will immediately call the method and do the dynamic includes.
Please give it a try and let me know if it works for your scenarios.
module DynamicConcern
extend ActiveSupport::Concern
included do
def self.dynamic_include(klass)
if "Custom::#{ENV["CUSTOMER_NAME"].camelize}::#{klass.name}Concern".safe_constantize
klass.include "Custom::#{ENV["CUSTOMER_NAME"].camelize}::#{klass.name}Concern".constantize
end
end
dynamic_include(self)
end
end
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
# this gets loaded and includes the right dynamic module
include DynamicConcern
end
class ShopController < ApplicationController
# this is NOT getting loaded again and skipped,
# since it has been loaded already in the parent controller
dynamic_include(self)
end
Actually it's a feature of Rails that the same module doesn't get loaded multiple times.
We started to use the normal ruby module inclution hooks and it worked fine!
module CustomConcern
def self.included(base)
custom_class_lookup_paths = [
"#{HOSTNAME.camelize}::Models::#{base.name}PrependConcern",
"#{HOSTNAME.camelize}::Controllers::#{base.name}PrependConcern"
].map{|class_string| class_string.safe_constantize }.compact
custom_class_lookup_paths.each do |class_string|
base.send :include, class_string
end
end

Where to store 'concerns' in a Ruby on Rails project? (Rails 5.2+)

I am fairly new to RoR. I have spent the afternoon reading about modules (used as concerns). I have yet to find a good article which describes the file path that using include or extend methods looks up (if include and extend are methods?).
The most specific example I have found was here: Ruby On Rails - Using concerns in controllers. This makes me feel that if I wanted to include the 'Bar' module in my Foo model I would create a concerns/ directory in my models/ directory, and create a 'Bar' module file in this folder.
# in models/concerns/bar.rb
modlue Bar
# do I need this???
extend ActiveSupport::Concern
def speak_bar
puts "model module bar!"
end
end
# in models/foo.rb
class Foo < ApplicationRecord
include Bar
end
# I could then perform:
Foo.new.speak_bar
=> "model module bar!"
And if I wanted to include a Bar module in my Foo controller I would do:
# in controllers/concerns/bar.rb
modlue Bar
# Again, do I need this???
extend ActiveSupport::Concern
def speak_bar
return "controller module bar!"
end
end
# in controllers/foo.rb
class FoosController < ApplicationController
include Bar
def make_bar
#bar = speak_bar
end
end
# I could then use #bar in my views (anywhere else?) as <%= #bar %> and get it to output
=> "controller module bar!"
Summary of questions:
Is this understanding set out above correct in terms of the file paths?
And do I need to use the extend ActiveSupport::Concern line in order to use this path system?
Are include and extend methods?
Thank you for your help.
You should always extend your concerns module with the supplied concerns base from Rails.
Pathing is usually app/models/concerns/file.rb for model concerns and app/controllers/file.rb for controllers and so on.
If you specifically have logic that crosses the controller and models separation, consider placing that in lib, and adding lib to your autoload path.
include and extend are methods. Most things (almost all) are objects in ruby. So almost all operations are methods on objects.
the file path that using include or extend Rails does some magic when starting to autoload a lot of things so you don't have to worry later when you call "Bar". This talk is really helpfull to understand WHY you can just do include Bar inside a rails model without much thinking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0a5zv7uBHw
Usually, you want model related concerns inside /app/models/concerns and controller related concerns inside /app/controllers/concerns, but that's just for organization purposes, rails will autoload them even if you use /app/whatever/concerns, so be carefull about name collisions.
You DO need to extend ActiveSupport::Concern if you want to use the syntax sugar that Concerns provide, but at the end they are just modules that can be included. https://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveSupport/Concern.html check this examples, concerns are just a way to write modules to share behaviour with a more friendly syntax for common rails patterns.
extend is a method of Object https://docs.ruby-lang.org/en/2.6.0/Object.html#method-i-extend
include is a method of Module https://docs.ruby-lang.org/en/2.6.0/Module.html#method-i-include (and Module inherits extend from Object)
concerns are auto-loaded by rails by default starting from rails v4+. You can read the article written by DHH to get a fair idea of what concern does and what does it try to solve.
However, it gets pretty complicated in determining which scope you are in and what self is in the method. Check out this video by Ryan Bates regarding the problems with concerns.
To solve some parts of the problem, I generally nest the concern inside a folder and refer it by giving a class. For example
# app/models/concerns/user/authentication.rb
class User
module Authentication
extend ActiveSupport::Concern
# stuff
end
end
and include in the model like
# app/models/user.rb
include Authentication
In my opinion, the separation of concerns helps in isolating your methods. For example, you can create a Filterable concern in a similar way, and isolate it from your other models.

Rails undefined method for Module

In Rails, how do you use a specific method from a module. For eg,
# ./app/controllers/my_controller.rb
class MyController < ApplicationController
include MyModule
def action
MyModule.a_method
end
private
def a_method
...
end
end
# ------------------------------------------------ #
# ./app/helpers/my_module.rb
module MyModule
def a_method
...
end
end
MyController includes MyModule. And in action ,I want to use MyModule.a_method (Please note I also have a private a_method in MyController and I don't want to use this.)
Things I've tried :
1) Defining the method in the module as self.
def self.a_method
end
2) Using the :: notation in controller (MyModule::a_method)
The error that I keep getting is
Undefined method:a_method for MyModule:module
For now, I've resorted to using a different name for the modules method. But I'd like to know how to namespace the function with either the Module:: or Module. notation
[UPDATE - 11/24/2014]
adding file structure in code, since Rails heavily relies on convention.
So I am not really sure what you are trying to accomplish with your module but a quick solution to get it working is below.
Move my_module.rb out of helpers and into lib/my_module.rb. The helpers directory is for methods that you use in your views. The convention is to utilize helpers that are namespaced after their respective controller or the application_helper.rb for global methods for your views. Not sure if that's what you are trying to accomplish with your module but wanted to throw that out there.
Create an initializer (you can all it whatever) in config/initializers/custom_modules.rb and add require 'my_module'
Update the a_method back to be self.a_method
You can now call MyModule.a_method in your app
Don't forget to restart your server for changes to lib/my_module.rb to take effect.
Also, a lot of people reference this post by Yehuda Katz as guidance on where to store code for your app. Thought it might be a helpful reference.
if you include MyModule into MyController, all the "instance methods" of the first will be mixed-in into the 2nd.
So if you only want to call MyModule.a_method, no need to include your module.
Then you'd want to require (or better autoload) your module before using it. To do so place it in controllers/concerns/my_module.rb, rails (4 at least) should autoload it, otherwise require its file in an intializer
# my_module.rb
module MyModule
def self.a_method
...
end
end
should work, but doing
# my_module.rb
module MyModule
extend self
def a_method
...
end
end
is more clean to me. You'd like to have a look to rails active support concern to understand the "rails way" on this topic.

Rails using included helpers inside class methods

Does anybody know why the included method doesn't work inside a class method?
class MyClass
include ActionView::Helpers::NumberHelper
def test
puts "Uploading #{number_to_human_size 123}"
end
def self.test
puts "Uploading #{number_to_human_size 123}"
end
end
ree-1.8.7-2011.03 :004 > MyClass.new.test
Uploading 123 Bytes
=> nil
ree-1.8.7-2011.03 :005 > MyClass.test
NoMethodError: undefined method `number_to_human_size' for MyClass:Class
from /path/to/my/code.rb:9:in `test'
from (irb):5
ree-1.8.7-2011.03 :006 >
For anyone wanting to use some custom helpers in class level lib or model, sometimes it is not worth it to include all helpers. Instead, call it directly:
class MyClass
def test
::ApplicationController.helpers.number_to_human_size(42)
end
end
(Taken from http://makandracards.com/makandra/1307-how-to-use-helper-methods-inside-a-model)
It's hard to tell without seeing your helper code, but include will insert all of the methods in that module into instances of the class you include into. extend is used to bring methods into a class. Therefore, if you just have methods defined in NumberHelper, these are being put onto all instances, but not the class, of MyClass.
The way that lots of Rails extensions work is using techniques that have been consolidated into ActiveSupport::Concern. Here is a good overview.
Essentially, extending ActiveSupport::Concern in your modules will allow you to specify, in sub-modules called ClassMethods and InstanceMethods, what functions you want to be added to classes and instances into which you include your module. For example:
module Foo
extend ActiveSupport::Concern
module ClassMethods
def bar
puts "I'm a Bar!"
end
end
module InstanceMethods
def baz
puts "I'm a Baz!"
end
end
end
class Quox
include Foo
end
Quox.bar
=> "I'm a Bar"
Quox.new.baz
=> "I'm a Baz"
I've used this before to do things like define the bar function in ClassMethods, then also make it available to instances by defining a bar method of the same name that just calls this.class.bar, making it callable from both. There are lots of other helpful things that ActiveSupport::Concern does, like allowing you to define blocks that are called back when the module is included.
Now, this is happening here specifically because you're includeing your helper, which might indicate that this functionality is more general-purpose than a helper - helpers are only automatically included in views, since they are only intended to help with views. If you want to use your helper in a view, you could use the helper_method macro in your class to make that method visible to your views, or, even better, make a module as above and not think about it as a helper, but use include to mix it in to the classes you want to use it in. I think I would go that route - there's nothing that says you can't make a HumanReadableNumber module and include it in NumberHelper to make it easily available across your views.
I faced the same issue. Here's how I solved it,
helper = Object.new.extend(ActionView::Helpers::NumberHelper)
helper.number_to_human_size(1000000)
Thanks to RailsForum.
I was facing the same problem. in my case, replacing the include with extend made it work.
class MyClass
extend ActionView::Helpers::NumberHelper
...
end

Rails 3.0 Engine - Execute code in ActionController

I am upgrading my Rails plugin to be an engine that works with the latest 3.0RC1 release and I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out the best (and most correct) way to extend ActionController. I've seen this post by DHH and this question here on SO, but my question is more about how to properly call code within the ActionController.
For instance, I need to call the following within my engine's controller:
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
helper :all
before_filter :require_one_user
after_filter :store_location
private
def require_one_user
# Code goes here
end
def store_location
# Code goes here
end
end
I know how to properly include my two private functions, but I can't find a way to get it to properly call helper, before_filter and after_filter.
I would greatly appreciate some links or a way to make this work. I have tried naming my controller something other than ApplicationController and having the real ApplicationController extend it, but that doesn't seem to work either. I'm really up for any solution that makes the life of the engine user as easy as possible. Ideally, they wouldn't have to extend my class, but they'd have all of the functionality built into their own ApplicationController.
You may also want to look into the initializers inside your engine subclass, so you don't have to include view helpers inside your controller class. And this will give you control over the load order of these modules.
Here is what I have been using:
module MyEngine
class Engine < Rails::Engine
initializer 'my_engine.helper' do |app|
ActionView::Base.send :include, MyEngineHelper
end
initializer 'my_engine.controller' do |app|
ActiveSupport.on_load(:action_controller) do
include MyEngineActionControllerExtension
end
end
end
end
Also, another option for the action controller extension is using a mixin module. This will let you use the before_filter, after_filter, etc..
module MyEngineActionControllerExtension
def self.included(base)
base.send(:include, InstanceMethods)
base.before_filter :my_method_1
base.after_filter :my_method_2
end
module InstanceMethods
#...........
end
end
One other thing... if you create the default rails directories at the top level of your gem, you don't have to worry about requiring the helpers or controllers. Your engine subclass has access to them. So I add my application controller and application helper extensions here:
/myengine/app/helpers/myengine_application_helper_extension.rb
/myengine/app/controllers/my_engine_action_controller_extension.rb
I like this setup because it looks similar to the application_controller and application_helper in your rails app. Again, this is just personal preference, but I try to keep anything that is directly rails related, such as controllers, helpers and models inside /my_engine/app and anything that is related to the plugin in general inside /my_engine/lib
Check out this tutorial by Jose Valim for more info on initializers:
https://gist.github.com/e139fa787aa882c0aa9c (engine_name is deprecated now, but most of this doc seems up-to-date)
So, I finally figured out the solution and I hope it helps someone else.
You need to create a file in your lib directory because you are actually going to extend the class. I did myplugin/lib/extensions/action_controller_base.rb.
Then, inside of your myplugin/lib/myplugin.rb file, do the following:
require 'extensions/action_controller_base.rb'
Inside of myplugin/lib/extensions/action_controller_base.rb put the following:
require 'action_controller' # Make sure ActionController::Base is defined
ActionController::Base.class_eval {
private
def my_method_1
# Code Goes Here
end
def my_method_2
# Code Goes Here
end
}
ActionController::Base.instance_eval {
helper_method :my_method_1, :my_method_2
before_filter :my_method_1
after_filter :my_method_2
}
If you need to have view helpers, create them in the myplugin/lib/helpers directory (or anything inside of lib, the name "helpers" doesn't matter) also and add the following to the bottom of myplugin/lib/extensions/action_controller_base.rb:
require 'helpers/helper_file_1'
require 'helpers/helper_file_2'
ActionView::Base.send :include, MyHelper1
ActionView::Base.send :include, MyHelper2

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