include ClassMethods in plugins

rubyonrails-talk
1

Why is that in so many plugins I see people using (including acts_as_taggable by DHH):

# init.rb ActiveRecord::Base.send(:include, ActiveRecord::Acts::SomeModule)

# lib/some_module.rb module ActiveRecord   module Acts     module SomeModule       def self.included(base)         base.extend(ClassMethods)       end

      module ClassMethods         def acts_as_something           # code         end       end     end   end end

why go through all that rather than just call:

# init.rb ActiveRecord::Base.extend ActiveRecord::Acts::SomeModule::ClassMethods

and skip the self.included method?

2

wyrosdick wrote:

Why is that in so many plugins I see people using (including acts_as_taggable by DHH):

# init.rb ActiveRecord::Base.send(:include, ActiveRecord::Acts::SomeModule)

# lib/some_module.rb module ActiveRecord module Acts    module SomeModule      def self.included(base)        base.extend(ClassMethods)      end

     module ClassMethods        def acts_as_something          # code        end      end    end end end

why go through all that rather than just call:

# init.rb ActiveRecord::Base.extend ActiveRecord::Acts::SomeModule::ClassMethods

and skip the self.included method?

I guess the use of self.included paves the way for more complex things to be done when the module included. It also allows the module to be included into a single AR model or a class of AR models, rather than into all of AR itself.

If you definitely want to apply the module to all of AR an even shorter alternative is:

# lib/some_module.rb class ActiveRecord    def self.acts_as_something      # code    end end