Let me introduce you to my new library called Yukata. It is a light weight Ruby attribute library that is configurable and extendable.

Virtus has been a huge inspiration for this library. I enjoyed the DSL it offered, while allowing me to have a quick way to make data objects.

Here is an example on how to utilize Yukata:

class Person < Yukata::Base
  attribute :first_name, String
  attribute :last_name,  String
  attribute :born_on,    DateTime
  attribute :married,    Boolean, default: -> { false }
end

The #attribute method is straight forward with its meaning. It is dynamically creating both getter and setter methods for the object. It can be thought of as a fancy attr_accessor but with a few extra features. It provides a fast way to discover what data type can be expected for that attribute.

Example Usage

When using Yukata, the the initializer expects a hash to be provided or a class that behaves like a Hash.

john = Person.new({
  :first_name => 'John',
  'last_name' => 'Doe',
  :born_on => '1969-01-16T00:00:00+00:00'
})

Yukata will take the hash and assign the values to their respective attribute keys. If a setter method is defined, then a corresponding value can be passed as well.

class Foo < Yukata::Base
  attr_accessor :bar
  attribute :qux, String
  attribute :baz, String, writer: false

  def baz=(value)
    @baz = value.to_s
  end
end

foo = Foo.new({
  bar: 'woot',
  qux: 'herp',
  baz: 'derp'
})

foo.bar # => 'woot'
foo.qux # => 'herp'
foo.bas # => 'derp'
foo.attributes # => { bar: 'woot', qux: 'herp' }

If a :coerce => false is passed, then Yukata will not attempt to coerce that attribute and leave it as is. This can be handy if a custom coercion is desired for the specific model. Here is an example:

class Episode < Yukata::Base
  attribute :season, Integer
  attribute :number, Integer
  attribute :name,   String, coerce: false

  # @override overides the yukata definition
  def name=(value)
    @name = '%sx%s - %s' % [@season, @number, value]
  end
end

episode = Episode.new({ season: 1, number: 1 })
episode.name = 'Foo Bar'
episode.name # => '1x1 - Foo Bar'

Now, remember just because there is access directly to instance variables does not mean it is okay to abuse them. With great power comes great responsibility, this means I am not responsible for your mistakes.

Setting Attribute Defaults

Sometimes the objects need default values if it is not set. Defaults are lazily loaded. They will only be set once the getter method is called.

class Book < Yukata::Base
  attribute :name,       String
  attribute :created_at, DateTime, default: -> { DateTime.now }
end

Registering Custom Coercions

This library only comes with basic coercers. I tried to make as little assumptions about the data coming in as I could. I believe that the consumer of the library should be the one who defines the coercions.

If the value can not be coerced, it is simply passed through and left alone.

Yukata.coercer.register(String, Array) do |string, target|
  string.split(' ')
end

Optional Readers and Writers

When declaring an attribute, both the reader and writer can be skipped. There is a use case where this would be handy.

class Book < Yukata::Base
  attribute :title, String, writer: false, reader: false

  def title=(value)
    @title = value.to_s
  end

  def title
    @title
  end
end

This is a bit contrived, but it demonstrates the following:

  1. The expected return data type for #title is a String.
  2. Custom coercer is defined.
  3. The attribute will be included when #attributes is called on Book.

If :writer => false is provided, there would be no need to include :coerce => false since the coercion only takes place when the value is being set on the object.

Conclusion

I wrote this library becaues I wanted to see how Virtus accomplished this task and how I could go about doing it differently. This is a highly configurable library that can be used to put your fat models on a diet.

References