Objectify

Introduction

What is it?

Objectify is a Ruby library written to facilitate object oriented development (object-relational mapping, or ORM). Using Objectify, developers can treat relational databases and their contents as objects, allowing more a more Ruby-like development experience.

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Relational records - in Ruby!

# Get information about your table, including table and column names

class House < SQLObject
end

House.finalize!

House.table_name
  # => :houses

::columns
House.columns
  # => [:id, :owner_id, :address]

# Find individual records by their id or by their attributes
House.find(1) # => <House:0x007ffe4c8eaaa8 @attributes={:id=>1, :address=>"1 Main St"}>

House.where(address: "1 Main St") # => <House:0x007ffe4c8eaaa8 @attributes={:id=>1, :address=>"1 Main St"}>

# Find all records
House.all
  # => [
    <House:0x007ffe4c8eaaa8 @attributes={:id=>1, :address=>"1 Main St", :owner_id=>3}>,
    <House:0x034ffe3c0e4a38 @attributes={:id=>2, :address=>"3 Pine St", :owner_id=>3}>
  ]
# Stage records before saving them to the database
home = House.new(address: "7 Grove Ave", owner_id: 1)

# Save staged records to the database
home.save

# Update records on the spot
home.update(address: "3 Maple Blvd")

Associations between classes

class House < SQLObject
  belongs_to :owner
  has_one_through :occupying_family, :owner, :family
end

House.finalize!

class Owner < SQLObject
  has_many :houses
  belongs_to :family
end

Owner.finalize!

home = House.find(3)
home.owner
  # => <Owner:0x007err483f32dk @attributes={:id=>1, :name=>"Peter Macdougal", :family_id=>2}>

N.B. the has_one_through association requires the user to specify the association upon which it depends as well as the association specified (e.g. the :family to which the :owner belongs)

Using Objectify

Getting Started

1. Download this repo into your project library

2. Model any tables you want to use as Ruby classes (e.g. an :apartments table should be modeled as an "Apartment" class)

3. Require SQLObject at the top of each model file

4. Each object model should inherit from SQLObject (which was included at the top of the file)

class House < SQLObject
  belongs_to :owner
  has_one_through :occupying_family, :owner, :family
end

N.B. call ::finalize! on a class after defining it to make use of getter and setter methods.

House.finalize! # => makes getters and setters available on column names

Persisting records to the database

Create a new record or update a records attributes

house = House.new(address: "5 Elm Street", owner_id=2)
house.save

house.address = "2 Marble Road"
house.save

Querying records

Query the database for records with desired attributes:

House.where(address: "1 Main St")
  # => <House:0x007ffe4c8eaaa8 @attributes={:id=>1, :address=>"1 Main St"}>

Using associations

Access associated records directly with association methods:

home = House.find(3)
  # => <House:0x007ffe4c8eaaa8 @attributes={:id=>3, :address=>"1 Granite St", :owner_id=>1}>
home.owner
  # =><Owner:0x007err483f32dk @attributes={:id=>1, :name=>"Peter Macdougal", :family_id=>2}>

Technologies

This library was written entirely in Ruby, using ActiveSupport to simplify string manipulation for naming conventions.