Adventures with Ruby

After a long day in the train today, I extracted the I18n functionality from ActiveRecord so its applicable to any class. This can be especially handy if the source of the data is different, e.g. LDAP. Just install the plugin and add one line to your class to make it translatable:

[sourcecode language='bash']./script/plugin install git://github.com/iain/acts_as_translatable_model[/sourcecode]

[sourcecode language='ruby']
class User
acts_as_translatable_model

attr_accessor :name, :password
end
[/sourcecode]

Now you can do familiar things with the class, just as you would do with normal ActiveRecord models. Supply a translation:

[sourcecode language='js']
nl-NL:
activerecord:
models:
user: gebruiker
attributes:
user:
name: naam
password: wachtwoord
[/sourcecode]

[sourcecode language='ruby']
>> User.human_name
=> “gebruiker”
>> User.human_attribute_name(“name”)
=> “naam”
[/sourcecode]

Of course, you can use inheritance, just as you would use Single Table Inheritance (STI).

It also works nicely together with i18n_label. A simple example:

[sourcecode language='ruby']
%h1= translate :please_login
- form_for(User.new) do |f|
= f.label :name
= f.text_field :name
= f.label :password
= f.password_field :password
= submit_tag( translate(:login) )
[/sourcecode]

Hopefully, this will make your life a little bit easier.