This acts_as extension allows objects to create feeds which describe them. These feeds can then be used in a “Facebook-style” News Feed.

example:

class ItemUserTag < ActiveRecord::Base
  acts_as_feedable :feed_name => 'Tag'
end

Feeds are created using the _with_feed wrappers around the save methods.

example:

annotation = Annotation.new
annotation.save_with_feed(current_user)

OR

annotation = annotation.find(params[:id])
annotation.update_attributes_with_feed(params[:annotation])

Sometimes a object that is created isn’t the focus of the feed that represents it’s creation. A good example is a membership. When a membership is created we don’t care about the membership itself but about the user. When a membership is destroyed, we still want to reference the user in the feed about its creation. This is solved by using the :delegate option to instead create a ‘joined’ feed with a User feedable in place of a ‘created’ feed with a Membership feedable.

Some things happen too frequently to list every occurance. Adding 50 items to a project shouldn’t generate 50 feeds. Passing :aggregate => true will instead create a single feed per person per day which counts the number of feedables created, updated, and destroyed. Each feedable creation will also generate an aggregated_component, a link to the object which is aggregated into the feed. This allows feeds to show each individual object which was added or destroyed upon request.

When a feedable is deleted, one of three things happen:

• If the feedable is being aggregated, we can add an aggregated component which represents the destruction of the feedable.

If the feedable is not being aggregated, there are two options:

• We simply delete all related feeds to avoid problems that would occur because feed permissions are proxies of the destroyed object.

• If a feed_initiator is set, we can add a destruction feed and inherit permissions from the feed’s scoping object instead.

• The acts_as_permissable plugin is being used by the application.

• Feedables being aggregated all have the same permissions.

• Feedables being aggregated are all public or permissable_proxies of the object they reference

ActsAsFeeable is released under the MIT license:

• www.opensource.org/licenses/MIT