activeadmin_configurable_columns

Per-admin configurable index table columns for ActiveAdmin 4.

ActiveAdmin has no built-in way to let each admin choose which columns of an index table they see. This gem adds one, built on ActiveAdmin's own extension points:

• a configurable_columns do ... end DSL declares the columns an admin may pick from;
• configurable_columns inside an index block renders the ones the current admin chose;
• a "Columns" picker appears in the sidebar of every configurable index;
• a "Table columns" admin page lets an admin review and change every table at once;
• each admin's choice is stored in the database, per admin and per table.

• Ruby >= 3.1
• Rails >= 7.1
• ActiveAdmin 4.0 (beta15 or later)

Add the gem to your Gemfile:

gem 'activeadmin_configurable_columns'

Install the migration and migrate:

bin/rails activeadmin_configurable_columns:install:migrations
bin/rails db:migrate

This creates the activeadmin_configurable_columns_preferences table. The admin reference is polymorphic with a string id, so it works with any current-user model and any primary key type (integer, uuid, ...).

Declare the available columns in an ActiveAdmin registration, and render them in the index:

ActiveAdmin.register Product do
  configurable_columns do
    column :brand
    column :sku, label: 'SKU'
    column(:qty, sortable: 'stock_items_quantity') { |product| product.total_quantity }
    column :notes, default: false        # available, but hidden until picked
  end

  index do
    selectable_column
    configurable_columns
    actions
  end
end

column mirrors the arguments of ActiveAdmin's own column, so a declaration reads the same as the index DSL it replaces:

Every resource that declares configurable_columns gets a "Columns" sidebar section on its index, and a card on the "Table columns" page. Selections are saved per admin; unknown or stale keys are dropped on read and write, and an empty selection falls back to the declared defaults, so an admin can never end up with an empty table.

All settings are optional. In config/initializers/activeadmin_configurable_columns.rb:

ActiveadminConfigurableColumns.configure do |config|
  # Options for the "Table columns" page's `menu` call, or false to keep the
  # page out of the navigation. Default: a translated label, top level.
  config.menu = { parent: 'Settings', priority: 0 }

  # Priority of the "Columns" sidebar section. ActiveAdmin's filters sidebar
  # uses 10; the default (20) renders right below it.
  config.sidebar_priority = 20

  # Where selections are read from and written to. Any object answering
  #   visible_column_keys(admin, resource_key) -> [Symbol] | nil  (nil = never saved)
  #   store(admin:, resource_key:, keys:)
  # can be plugged in. Default: the bundled Preference model.
  config.preference_store = MyOwnStore
end

The current admin is whatever ActiveAdmin's current_active_admin_user returns, so the gem follows your config.current_user_method setting.

The gem ships English strings under standard ActiveAdmin keys; override them per locale in your application:

en:
  active_admin:
    sidebars:
      columns: "Columns"
    table_columns:
      title: "Table columns"
      save: "Save columns"
      saved: "Columns saved"
      empty: "No table has configurable columns yet."
      unknown_resource: "Unknown table"

Column checkbox labels come from human_attribute_name, so your existing Active Record attribute translations apply.

ActiveAdmin 4 builds its stylesheet with Tailwind, which only emits classes it finds in scanned sources. Add the gem's views to your Tailwind entrypoint (or config) so the picker and the "Table columns" page keep their layout:

@source "<path to the installed gem>/app/views/**/*.{arb,erb,html,rb}";

If a rake task generates your ActiveAdmin Tailwind entrypoint, resolve the path with Gem.loaded_specs['activeadmin_configurable_columns'].full_gem_path.

• ActiveadminConfigurableColumns::Dsl is mixed into ActiveAdmin::ResourceDSL; configurable_columns do ... end builds a Registry of Columns, stores it on the resource, and adds the sidebar section.
• ActiveadminConfigurableColumns::TableRenderer is mixed into ActiveAdmin::Views::IndexAsTable::IndexTableFor; configurable_columns inside index looks up the current admin's saved keys and emits the matching columns.
• The "Table columns" page is a regular ActiveAdmin.register_page, loaded through ActiveAdmin's own load paths; its update action also serves the sidebar forms.
• Rendering an index whose resource never declared its columns raises ActiveadminConfigurableColumns::NotDeclared with a hint, rather than an empty table.

bundle install
bundle exec rspec

The test suite is standalone: it boots a dummy Rails application (spec/dummy) with an in-memory sqlite database and a real ActiveAdmin registration, and exercises the gem's migration on every run.

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.