Automatically use decorated associations in delegate methods

[Joey Cardosi]

(sorry in advance if I missed an issue or something in the docs)

Let's say I have two model classes, Book and Author.
Book implements an author_name method that delegates name to its author.

class Book < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :author

  def author_name
    author.name
  end
end

class Author < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :books
end

My goal is to achieve something like this

book = Book.last
puts book.name # lord of the rings
puts book.author_name # j. r. r. tolkien

puts book.decorate.name # Lord of the Rings
puts book.decorate.author_name # J. R. R. Tolkien

I'd love to be able to do something like this

  class Book < Draper::Decorator
    delegate_all
    
    # book.decorate.author_name will automatically use a decorated author
    decorates_association :author

    ...
end

However, it does not work that way. A decorated book still sends name to an un-decorated author. So, I need to explicitly re-define the delegate method in the decorator in order to have book.decorate.author_name use a decorated author...

  class Book < Draper::Decorator
    delegate_all
    decorates_association :author
    
    # code duplication... :(
    def author_name
      author.name
    end
    
    ...
  end

If and when more delegate methods to author are defined on Book, this problem will only get nastier.

I haven't found a solution that does not involve duplicating code or violating the Law of Demeter.
Is there a cleaner way to implement this?

Thanks!

[Joey Cardosi]

No longer need a solution here