I just finished a plugin called "records_sequence" which add "next/ previous" methods to each ActiveRecord object. After installed, it could be a pleasure to find a object's neighbors.
== INSTALL == # This plugin requires Rails 2.1+ currently. Install it by below command: ruby script/plugin install git://github.com/Aaron2Ti/records_sequence.git
== USAGE == # After installed, your models could: foo = User.first bar = foo.next bar2 = foo.previous foo_neighbour = foo.previous # returns nil if foo has no previous neighbour
#The sequence's sorted column is defined by the new option :sorted_by, # default is the 'id' column. foo = User.last pre_foo_sorted_by_id = foo.previous pre_foo_sorted_by_age = foo.previous(:sorted_by => 'age')
#Also works fine with most other ActiveRecord's find options: foo = User.find 30 foo.next(:conditions => ['age < ?', 20]) foo.previous(:offset => 2) foo.next(:sorted_by => 'address', :order => 'name DESC, age') foo.previous( :sorted_by => 'age', :conditions => ['age < ?', 20], :order => 'name DESC, address', :offset => 2 )
Future info of this plugin also could be found at my blog: