Method added in plugin is not immediately avail.?

rubyonrails-talk
1

Joshua :

I have the following controller:

class MemberController < ApplicationController   performs_authentication :user_model_class => Member   performs_scaffolding :only => [:show, :edit],     :model_id => user.id   ... end

The first statement, performs_authentication, adds an instance method "user" to the controller, which I want to use in the second statement (see code above). Sadly, I'm getting the following error:

undefined local variable or method `user' for MemberController:Class

Is this normal behavior, that one can't use a method, added by one plugin, immediately? Or must I have done something wrong...?

You're in the context of the class not of an instance. performs_scaffolding is a class method, and if you write user.id, user should be a local variable or a class method.

Since user is an instance method and you're not manipulating an instance of MemberController, it doesn't work.

I don't know what really you want to do with :model_id => user.id but you may look at creating a Proc object that you will be called later in the right scope at the right moment.

See the :if => Proc.new { .. } option in validations macros for an example.

HTH,

    -- Jean-François.

2

Joshua :

When this option is set, then performs_scaffolding doesn't look for params[:id] anymore but always uses the passed model ID.

So in my case, I want to pass always the ID of the logged in user which is returned by the instance method "user":

performs_scaffolding :only => [:show, :edit],   :model_id => user.id

So what to do now? Making the user method a class method? Or using the Proc method? Or any better idea?

you can do either :

performs_scaffolding ... :model_name => :user

Then your plugin does a send(options[:model_name]).id to get the ID.

(the plugin knows how to get an ID, given a model name)

or :

performs_scaffolding .. :model_getter => :user_id

and in the controller, you've got a private instance method

def user_id   user.id end

that is, you tell the plugin the name of the method to get the right ID.

Better is to give the choice between a method name (as a symbol) and an object Proc.

performs_scaffolding ... :model_getter => Proc.new { user.id }

You can also make performs_scaffolding be called with a block attached and store that block in a variable as a Proc object :

performs_scaffolding ... do   user.id end

then instead of a send, you will have a my_proc.call. See how Rails handle callbacks like controller filter or AR callbacks (before_save...)

Your choice depends on the way you want to expose your API.

  -- Jean-François.