reubenmallaby / acts_as_nothing

Rails plugin to provide default text for NULL record fields

ActsAsNothing
=============

Rails plugin to provide an easy way of setting default text for fields that may be nil.

Instead of having ugly code in your views like <%= item.name.nil? ? 'My default text' : item.name %>, you just need item.name and configure the default text in the model.

You can pass a prefix as a parameter if required like <%= item.name("prefix") %>

The method acts_as_nothing takes a hash of field name and default text for configuration.

Providing an fieldname that does not exist in the model will create a readonly method with the given name that returns the text given.

Example
=======

  class User << ActiveRecord::Base
    acts_as_nothing(
      :name => "Anonymous"
    )
  end	

View
====

(With user.name as 'Bob')

  <%= user.name %>

Produces 'Bob'

  <%= user.name("by") %>

Produces 'by Bob'

(or user.name as nil)

  <%= user.name %>

Produces 'Anonymous'

  <%= user.name('by') %>

Produce 'by Anonymous'

Copyright (c) 2010 Reuben Mallaby, released under the MIT license