ActsAsFollower
==============
acts_as_follower is a plugin to allow any model to "follow" any other model.
Main uses would be for Users to follow other Users or for Users to follow Books, etc...
(Basics to develop the type of follow system that GitHub has)
Install
=======
* Run the following command:
./script/plugin install git://github.com/tcocca/acts_as_follower.git
* Create a new rails migration using the generator:
./script/generate acts_as_follower
This will generate a migration file as well as a model called Follow.
Usage & Examples
=======
Make your model(s) that you want to allow to to follow acts_as_followable
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
...
acts_as_followable
...
end
class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
...
acts_as_followable
...
end
Make your model(s) that can follow other model(s) acts_as_follower
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
...
acts_as_follower
...
end
ActsAsFollower Methods
- To have a Model object start following another use the following:
book = Book.find(1)
current_user.follow(book) # Creates a record for the current_user as the follower and the book as the followable
- To stop following a Model object use the following
current_user.stop_following(book) # Deletes that record in the Follow table
- You can check to see if a Model that acts_as_follower is following a Model acts_as_followable through the following:
current_user.following?(book) # Returns true or false
- To get all of the records that a Model is following use the following on a model that acts_as_follower
current_user.all_following # Returns an array of every followed object for the current user.
- To get all followed objects by a certain type use the following on a model that acts_as_follower. It should be noted that this method is considerably faster than the above one.
current_user.following_by_type('Book') # Returns an array of all followed objects for current user where followable_type is 'Book'
- To get the total number (count) of follows for a user use the following on a model that acts_as_follower
current_user.follow_count # Returns and integer
# ActsAsFollowable Methods
- To get all the followers of a model that acts_as_followable
book = Book.find(1)
book.followers # Returns an array of all the followers for that book
- To get just the number of follows use
book.follows_count
- To see is a model that acts_as_followable is followed by a model that acts_as_follower use the following
book.followed_by?(current_user) # Returns true or false depending on if current_user is following book
- To block a follower call the following
book.block(current_user)
# Blocks the current user from appearing in the followers list, and blocks the book from appearing in the current_user.all_follows or current_user.all_following lists
- To unblock is just as simple
book.unblock(current_user)
# Unblocking deletes all records of that follow, instead of just the :blocked attribute => false the follow is deleted. So, current_user would need to try and follow the book again
# I would like to hear thoughts on this, I may change this to make the follow as :blocked => false instead of deleting the record
Comments
=======
If anyone has comments or questions please let me know (tom dot cocca at gmail dot com)
If you have updates or patches or want to contribute I would love to see what you have or want to add
Props
=======
Thank you to Dougal and JDG for their interest and time in commiting to making this plugin better.
Also, make sure to check out Dougal's blog about the plugin here: http://douglasfshearer.com/blog/rails-plugin-acts-as-follower
Also, props go out to Pete Jackson on his VoteFu plugin which is what I took the majority of the design pattern for this plugin from:
See Pete's plugin here: http://github.com/peteonrails/vote_fu/tree/master
Pete based his plugin off of acts_as_voteable and acts_as_commentable so I should give props there as well.
Thank you Pete!
Thank you to jhchabran (Jean Hadrien Chabran) - http://github.com/jhchabran and TomK32 (Thomas R. Koll) http://github.com/TomK32
for their commits to the block/unblock problem, I took a sampling of their strategies and combined them. Thanks guys.
TODO
=======
* Add Example Usage code to the plugin
* Let me know if there is something else you would like to see.
Copyright (c) 2008 Tom Cocca ( tom dot cocca at gmail dot com ), released under the MIT license