Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
42 lines (25 loc) · 1.84 KB

HACKING.md

File metadata and controls

42 lines (25 loc) · 1.84 KB
Raw

Hacking document

This document is intended to provide detailed information about the internal design and implementation of Alba. You are recommended to read through it if you want to hack Alba.

Design

The design of Alba is simple. Alba::Resource module is the only interface end users use by includeing it. Other classes and modules are referenced by Alba::Resource.

When a class includes Alba::Resource module it defines ClassMethods such as attributes and InstanceMethods such as serialize. Instance methods work with information collected by class methods.

Methods

The main methods users directly use are listed below.

Class methods (DSL):

  • attribute for block style attribute
  • attributes for symbol style attribute
  • association and its aliases such as one for association
  • nested for nested attribute

Instance methods:

  • serializable_hash and to_h for hash from target object
  • serialize and to_json for serialized JSON string

Other methods are rather trivial. They'll be added to this list when it turned out it's important enough.

Implementation

In Alba::Resource module there are some things to note.

@object is an object for serialization. It's either a singular object or a collection.

Attribute object can be either Symbol, Proc, Alba::Association or Alba::TypedAttribute.

  • Symbol attributes come from attributes method and are sent to __send__ as method name
  • Proc attributes come from attribute method and are instance_executed
  • Alba::Association attributes come from association method and to_h method on the object is called
  • Alba::TypedAttribute attributes come when users specify type option and value method on the object is called

When users provide if option, the attribute object becomes an Array. It contains two element, attribute itself and condition.