Outpost::Aggregator

Provides UI and server-side handling for building associations between any two objects.

gem 'outpost-aggregator'

This is a pretty simple gem... you can probably get away with using this gem without Outpost. Just be sure you have a few things setup:

• A client-side window.outpost object for the javascript.
• Outpost.obj_by_key - to find an object by the passed-in object key. This is defined in outpost.
• The join model must respond to position and obj_key if you want to use the SimpleJson module. This module is dead-simple, so you definitely could just copy and paste its contents into your model and customize it there.

The aggregator writes a JSON string to a hidden input, and that's what gets submitted to and parsed by the server.

In your model:

class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :related_posts, order: "position", dependent: :destroy
  accepts_json_input_for :related_posts
end

In the form, you need to provide a div for the aggregator to be built in, the hidden input for the JSON string, and then initialize the Aggregator with bootstrapped content. Using simple_form, and assuming the record's association is called "content" (which is the default), it might look like this:

<div id="aggregator" class="aggregator"></div>
<%= f.input :related_posts_json, as: :hidden, input_html: { id: "related_posts_json" } %>

<script>
    aggregator = new outpost.Aggregator(
      "#aggregator", "#related_posts_json",
      <%= j record.related_posts.includes(:post).map(&:post).to_json.html_safe %>, 
      <%= raw options.to_json %>);
</script>

You should also define an outpost.ContentAPI, to tell the Aggregator how to get in touch with your server.

class outpost.ContentAPI

    #-----------------------------

    class @Content extends Backbone.Model
        #----------
        # simpleJSON is an object of just the attributes
        # we care about for SCPRv4. Everything else will
        # filled out server-side.
        simpleJSON: ->
            {
                id:       @get 'id'
                position: @get 'position'
            }
    
    #-----------------------------
    
    class @ContentCollection extends Backbone.Collection
        url: "/api/content/"
        model: ContentAPI.Content
            
        #----------
        # Sort by position attribute
        comparator: (model) ->
            model.get 'position'
        
        #----------
        # An array of content turned into simpleJSON. See
        # Content#simpleJSON for more.
        simpleJSON: ->
            contents = []
            @each (content) -> contents.push(content.simpleJSON())
            contents

    #-----------------------------
    
    class @PrivateContentCollection extends @ContentCollection
        url: "/api/private/content"
        
    #-----------------------------

Your API should have a by_url path, and should accept query params for the search and URL import to work.

See the content_full and content_small templates to see what the aggregator expects the response object to look.

• Write tests

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create new Pull Request