def self.attr_accessible(*args)end
  include Clearance::User

My full user model ended up looking like this:

  class User

    include MongoMapper::Document

    def self.attr_accessible(*args)end
    include Clearance::User

    key :email, String
    key :encrypted_password, String
    key :salt, String
    key :confirmation_token, String
    key :remember_token, String
    key :firstname, String
    key :email_confirmed, Boolean
    key :lastname, String

    timestamps!

  end

Perhaps if I have time, I will look into adding attr_accessible support to mongomapper myself.

Update 13/03/2010: I believe the dependency on attr_accessible in clearance has since been removed. So this small hack is most probably defunct.

The law states that a method M of and object O may only invoke the methods of the following kind:

1. a method on O itself
2. any parameters passed to M
3. any objects instantiated within M
4. any direct components of O

The classic example coined by David Bock used a Paperboy (one object) delivering a paper, then extracting money from a Customer’s (another object) Wallet (and another):

  class Paperboy
    def get_payment(customer)
      self.money += customer.wallet.take_out(10)
    end
  end

In the “real world” the Paperboy would ask the customer for the money who would then take it out for them, rather then the Paperboy reaching into the customer’s back pocket and getting it for themself.

Really we want something as follows:

  class Paperboy
    def get_payment(customer)
      self.money += customer.get_payment(10)
    end
  end

  class Customer
    def get_payment(amount)
      wallet.take_out(10)
    end
  end

This may all seem trivial and a waste of time, but what happens if some Customers want to pay by cheque? Those decisions should have an impact on the Paperboy, otherwise we end up with:

  class Paperboy
    def get_payment(customer)
      if customer.pay_by_cash?
        self.money += customer.wallet.take_out(10)
      elsif customer.pay_by_cheque?
        self.money += customer.cheque_book.write_cheque(10)
      end
    end
  end

Where as it makes more sense for the change to be contained within the Customer:

  class Paperboy
    def get_payment(customer)
      self.money += customer.get_payment(10)
    end
  end

  class Customer
    def get_payment(amount)
      if pay_by_cash?
        wallet.take_out(10)
      elsif pay_by_cheque?
        cheque_book.write_cheque(10)
      end
    end
  end

So what does this have to do with Rails and the delegate method? The delegate method adds a quick and simple way of following the Law of Demeter without having to do very much at all.

  class Order
    belongs_to :customer
  end

  class Customer
    has_many :orders
    has_one :credit_card
    has_one :bank_account

    def payment_method
      if pay_by_card?
        credit_card
      elsif pay_by_account?
        bank_account
      end
    end
  end

  class CreditCard
    belongs_to :customer
  end

  class BankAccount
    belongs_to :customer
  end

This setup means to get an Order’s payment we would have to say:

  @order.customer.payment_method.withdraw(amount)

But if we simply change our objects as such:

  class Order
    belongs_to :customer
    delegate :withdraw_payment, :to => :customer
  end

  class Customer
    has_many :orders
    has_one :credit_card
    has_one :bank_account

    def withdraw_payment(amount)
      if pay_by_card?
        credit_card.withdraw(amount)
      elsif pay_by_account?
        bank_account.withdraw(amount)
      end
    end
  end

Now all we have to say is:

  @order.withdraw_payment(amount)

So at any time, the details of how a payment  is to be decided can be contained with the Customer. This is of course a simplistic example, but hopefully explains how you chould be using this handy feature.

  >> rake -T vlad
  Could not load vlad: no such file to load -- vlad/git

To solve the problem just required an install of the new vlad-git gem.

  >> sudo gem install vlad-git

Now all my tasks were appearing properly. Vlad 2 always brought around a few changes in it’s deploy.rb and use. Here is my deploy.rb for reference:

  set :application, "yourdomain"
  set :domain, "yourdomain@yourdomain.com"

  set :user, "yourdomain"
  set :repository, "git@github.com:youraccount/yourdomain.git"

  task :staging do
    set :revision, "origin/staging"
    set :deploy_to, "/opt/yourdomain.staging/"
  end   

  task :production do
    set :revision, "origin/master"
    set :deploy_to, "/opt/yourdomain/"
  end

  namespace :vlad do

    desc "Pull from git, run migrations, then (re)start the app server"
    task :migrate_deploy => [:update, :migrate, :start_app]

    desc "Pull from git then (re)start the app server"
    task :deploy => [:update, :start_app]

    desc 'Restart Passenger'
    remote_task :restart do
      puts "Touching: #{deploy_to}current/tmp/restart.txt"
      run "touch #{deploy_to}/current/tmp/restart.txt"
    end

  end

Now invoking Vlad for my staging environment works as such:

  >> rake staging vlad:deploy

     >: rake spec:db:fixtures:load
     rake aborted!
     uninitialized constant Fixtures

Fixed by:

     >: rake db:fixtures:load FIXTURES_PATH=spec/fixtures

I spent this morning playing around with autotest, but was getting really flaky results with the Growl notifications. I tried about four different autotest configs, but none of them seemed to consistently worked. I remembered that the Growl notifications at Thursday’s Coding Dojo worked pretty well, so after some digging around I found the config on their github. After a tiny tweaking I was even able to get it to work with Przemysław Kowalczyk’s Doom Guy. I’ve packaged it all up and put it on Github. Enjoy.

doomguy-growl-autotest