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