Adding custom methods to Rails 4 MVC

Question

I'm building a gem in Rails which is a simple admin interface. I have experience with building rails applications but this is the first time I'm developing a gem and i have a problem with the concept of making methods in my gem part of the rails internals.

For example i want my three methods which are part of my gem to be accessible through rails application. The methods are: my_controller_method, my_model_method, my_view_method

# lib/my_gem/view_helpers.rb
module MyGem
  module ViewHelpers
    def my_view_method(data)
      # super mega stuff
    end
  end
end

# lib/my_gem/active_record.rb
module MyGem
  module ActiveRecord
    def my_model_method(data)
      # super mega stuff
    end
  end
end

# lib/my_gem/controller_additions.rb
module MyGem
  module ControllerAdditions
    def my_controller_method(data)
    # super mega stuff
    end
  end
end

So i want these methods be available in my rails MVC architecture. For example

#app/models/institution.rb
class Institution < ActiveRecord::Base
  validates_presence_of :contact_person, :phone_number, :email
  my_model_method :some_data
end

#app/controllers/institutions_controller.rb
class InstitutionsController < ApplicationController
  my_controller_method :some_data
end

#app/views/institutions/index.html
<h1></h1>
<%= my_view_method(some_data) %>

So what is the best way to add methods from my gem to rails MVC?

Patrick Oscity · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-11 14:15:15Z

1

In lib/my_gem.rb you can use the poorly documented ActiveSupport#on_load, e.g.

require 'my_gem/view_helpers'
require 'my_gem/active_record'
require 'my_gem/controller_additions'

ActiveSupport.on_load(:action_view) do
  include MyGem::ViewHelpers
end

ActiveSupport.on_load(:active_record) do
  extend MyGem::ActiveRecord
end

ActiveSupport.on_load(:action_controller) do
  extend MyGem::ControllerAdditions
end

In this blog post, Yehuda Katz talks a bit more about the surroundings. This might be an interesting read for you as well!

edited Dec 11, 2013 at 14:15

answered Dec 11, 2013 at 8:56

Patrick Oscity

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2 Comments

Patrick Oscity Over a year ago

Added link to related blog post.

Nenad Nikolic Over a year ago

There was a small problem, needed to change include/extend. ViewHelper module was included, ActiveRecord and ControllerAdditions modules where extended. And then it worked :D

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