Store Schema

StoreSchema enhances ActiveRecord::Base.store_accessor with data type conversion capabilities.

This library was developed for- and extracted from HireFire.

The documentation can be found on RubyDoc.

• Ruby 2.5+
• ActiveRecord 6.0+

It's likely that all ActiveRecord-supported databases will work. However, we currently only test against PostgreSQL, MySQL and SQLite.

Add the gem to your Gemfile and run bundle.

gem "store_schema"

This example assumes that you have a websites table with a config column of type text.

Define a model and use store_schema.

class Website < ActiveRecord::Base

  # Tell ActiveRecord that we want to serialize the :config attribute
  # and store the serialized data as text in the config column.
  #
  # By default, `store` serializes your data using the YAML coder. You can
  # swap the YAML coder out for other coders, such as JSON.
  #
  # Note: If you're using PostgresSQL hstore- or json instead of a
  # plain text column type, don't define `store :config`.
  #
  store :config, coder: JSON

  # Define a schema for the store. This syntax is similar to
  # ActiveRecord::Migration.
  #
  store_schema :config do |s|
    s.string   :name
    s.integer  :visitors
    s.float    :apdex
    s.boolean  :ssl
    s.datetime :published_at
  end
end

Now you can get and set attributes on the websites.config column using the generated accessors.

website = Website.create(
  :name         => "Example Website",
  :visitors     => 9001,
  :apdex        => 1.0,
  :ssl          => true,
  :published_at => Time.now
)

website.name         # => (String)    "Example Website"
website.visitors     # => (Integer)   9001
website.apdex        # => (Float)     1.0
website.ssl          # => (TrueClass) true
website.published_at # => (DateTime)  "Thu, 18 Sep 2014 23:18:11 +0000"

website.config
# =>
# {
#   "name"         => "Example Website",
#   "visitors"     => "9001",
#   "apdex"        => "1.0",
#   "ssl"          => "t",
#   "published_at" => "2014-09-18 23:18:11.583168000"
# }

This is similar to using ActiveRecord's built-in store_accessor, except that store_schema is more strict about which data types are stored. It attempts to remain consistent with ActiveRecord's regular column storage conventions.

• String
  • Assigned as: String
  • Stored as: String
  • Retrieved as: String
• Integer
  • Assigned as: Integer
  • Stored as: String
  • Retrieved as: Integer
• Float
  • Assigned as: Float
  • Stored as: String
  • Retrieved as: Float
• Boolean (TrueClass)
  • Assigned as: 1, "1", "t", "T", true, "true", "TRUE", "on", "ON"
  • Stored as: "t"
  • Retrieved as: true
• Boolean (FalseClass)
  • Assigned as: 0, "0", "f", "F", false, "false", "FALSE", "off", "OFF"
  • Stored as: "f"
  • Retrieved as: false
• DateTime
  • Assigned as: Date, Time, DateTime
  • Stored as: "2014-09-18 23:18:11.583168000" (using UTC time zone)
  • Retrieved as: DateTime

If you need to be able to query these serialized attributes, consider using the PostgreSQL hstore extension. Otherwise, you can simply use a text column type and define store <column>[, coder: JSON] in your model and it should work with any ActiveRecord-compatible database.

Contributions are welcome, but please conform to these requirements:

• Ruby (MRI) 2.5+
• ActiveRecord 6.0+
• 100% Test Coverage
  • Coverage results are generated after each test run at coverage/index.html
• 100% Passing Tests
  • Run test suite with $ rake test

To start contributing, fork the project, clone it, and install the development dependencies:

$ git clone git@github.com:USERNAME/store_schema.git
$ cd store_schema
$ bundle

Tests are run against the following databases, so be sure they're installed prior to running the tests:

• PostgreSQL
• MySQL
• SQLite

To run the tests:

$ rake test

To run the local documentation server:

$ rake doc

Create a new branch to start contributing:

$ git checkout -b my-contribution master

Submit a pull request.

Released under the MIT License by Michael van Rooijen.