Overview
The ModelFormatter module allows you to easily handle fields that need to be formatted or stripped of formatting as they are set or retrieved from the database. You can designate one or more of your columns as "formatted columns" like in this example:
class Widget < ActiveRecord::Base
# Set an integer field as a symbol
format_column :some_integer, :as => :integer
# Specify the type as a class
format_column :sales_tax, :as => Formatters::FormatCurrency
format_column :sales_tax, :as => Formatters::FormatCurrency.new(:precision => 4)
# Change the prefix of the generated methods and specify type as a symbol
format_column :sales_tax, :prefix => 'fmt_', :as => :currency, :options => {:precision => 4}
# Use specific procedures to convert the data +from+ and +to+ the target
format_column :area, :from => Proc.new {|value, options| number_with_delimiter sprintf('%2d', value)},
:to => Proc.new {|str, options| str.gsub(/,/, '')}
# Use a block to define the formatter methods
format_column :sales_tax do
def from(value, options = {})
number_to_currency value
end
def to(str, options = {})
str.gsub(/[\$,]/, '')
end
end
...
end
The methods of this module are automatically included into ActiveRecord::Base
as class methods, so that you can use them in your models.
Documentation
For more detailed documentation, create the rdocs with the following command:
rake rdoc
Running Unit Tests
By default, the ModelFormatter plugin uses the mysql +test+ database, running on +localhost+. To run the tests, enter the following:
rake
Bugs & Feedback
Please file a bug report at http://github.com/bfolkens/model-formatter/issues
Credits
Sebastian Kanthak's file_column plugin - used for ideas and best practices.