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 | = Active Model -- model interfaces for Rails
Active Model provides a known set of interfaces for usage in model classes.
They allow for Action Pack helpers to interact with non-ActiveRecord models,
for example. Active Model also helps building custom ORMs for use outside of
the Rails framework.
Prior to Rails 3.0, if a plugin or gem developer wanted to have an object
interact with Action Pack helpers, it was required to either copy chunks of
code from Rails, or monkey patch entire helpers to make them handle objects
that did not exactly conform to the Active Record interface. This would result
in code duplication and fragile applications that broke on upgrades.
Active Model solves this. You can include functionality from the following
modules:
* Add attribute magic to objects
    class Person
      include ActiveModel::AttributeMethods
      attribute_method_prefix 'clear_'
      define_attribute_methods [:name, :age]
      attr_accessor :name, :age
      def clear_attribute(attr)
        send("#{attr}=", nil)
      end
    end
    person.clear_name
    person.clear_age
  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/AttributeMethods.html]
* Callbacks for certain operations
    class Person
      extend ActiveModel::Callbacks
      define_model_callbacks :create
      def create
        run_callbacks :create do
          # Your create action methods here
        end
      end
    end
  This generates +before_create+, +around_create+ and +after_create+
  class methods that wrap your create method.
  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/CallBacks.html]
* Tracking value changes
  The ActiveModel::Dirty module allows for tracking attribute changes:
    person = Person.new
    person.name # => nil
    person.changed? # => false
    person.name = 'bob'
    person.changed? # => true
    person.changed # => ['name']
    person.changes # => { 'name' => [nil, 'bob'] }
    person.name = 'robert'
    person.save
    person.previous_changes # => {'name' => ['bob, 'robert']}
  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/Dirty.html]
* Adding +errors+ interface to objects
  Exposing error messages allows objects to interact with Action Pack
  helpers seamlessly.
    class Person
      def initialize
        @errors = ActiveModel::Errors.new(self)
      end
      attr_accessor :name
      attr_reader   :errors
      def validate!
        errors.add(:name, "can not be nil") if name.nil?
      end
      def ErrorsPerson.human_attribute_name(attr, options = {})
        "Name"
      end
    end
    person.errors.full_messages
    # => ["Name can not be nil"]
    person.errors.full_messages
    # => ["Name can not be nil"]
  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/Errors.html]
* Model name introspection
    class NamedPerson
      extend ActiveModel::Naming
    end
    NamedPerson.model_name        # => "NamedPerson"
    NamedPerson.model_name.human  # => "Named person"
  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/Naming.html]
* Observer support
  ActiveModel::Observers allows your object to implement the Observer
  pattern in a Rails App and take advantage of all the standard observer
  functions.
  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/Observer.html]
* Making objects serializable
  ActiveModel::Serialization provides a standard interface for your object
  to provide +to_json+ or +to_xml+ serialization.
    s = SerialPerson.new
    s.serializable_hash   # => {"name"=>nil}
    s.to_json             # => "{\"name\":null}"
    s.to_xml              # => "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n<serial-person...
  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/Serialization.html]
* Internationalization (i18n) support
    class Person
      extend ActiveModel::Translation
    end
    Person.human_attribute_name('my_attribute')
    # => "My attribute"
  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/Translation.html]
* Validation support
   class Person
     include ActiveModel::Validations
     attr_accessor :first_name, :last_name
     validates_each :first_name, :last_name do |record, attr, value|
       record.errors.add attr, 'starts with z.' if value.to_s[0] == ?z
     end
   end
   person = Person.new
   person.first_name = 'zoolander'
   person.valid?  # => false
  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/Validations.html]
* Custom validators
   class Person
     include ActiveModel::Validations
     validates_with HasNameValidator
     attr_accessor :name
   end
   class HasNameValidator < ActiveModel::Validator
     def validate(record)
      record.errors[:name] = "must exist" if record.name.blank?
     end
   end
   p = ValidatorPerson.new
   p.valid?                  # =>  false
   p.errors.full_messages    # => ["Name must exist"]
   p.name = "Bob"
   p.valid?                  # =>  true
  {Learn more}[link:classes/ActiveModel/Validator.html]
  
== Download and installation
The latest version of Active Model can be installed with RubyGems:
  % [sudo] gem install activemodel
Source code can be downloaded as part of the Rails project on GitHub
* https://github.com/rails/rails/tree/master/activemodel
== License
Active Model is released under the MIT license.
== Support
API documentation is at
* http://api.rubyonrails.org
Bug reports and feature requests can be filed with the rest for the Ruby on Rails project here:
* https://github.com/rails/rails/issues
 |