Add friendship features to your ActiveRecord models.
HasFriendship allows ActiveRecord objects to send, accept, and decline friend requests using self-refernetial polymorphic association.
Getting started
Add HasFriendship to your Gemfile:
gem 'has_friendship'
After you bundle HasFriendship, you need to copy migrations and migrate:
$ rails has_friendship_engine:install:migrations
$ rake db:migrate
Gem upgrades
After gem updates, it may be necessary to run subsequent migrations.
$ rails has_friendship_engine:install:migrations
Will install new migrations if they're necessary.
Usage
Simply drop in has_friendship
to a model:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_friendship
end
Managing friendship
Now, instances of User
can send, accept, and decline friend requests:
@mac = User.create(name: "Mac")
@dee = User.create(name: "Dee")
# @mac sends a friend request to @dee
@mac.friend_request(@dee)
# @dee can accept the friend request
@dee.accept_request(@mac)
# @dee can also decline the friend request
@dee.decline_request(@mac)
A friendship can also be removed:
# @dee removes @mac from its friends
@dee.remove_friend(@mac)
Blocking a friendable
A friendable can be blocked. When blocked, the friendable cannot request or remove friendship to the one that initially blocked it.
@dee.request_friend(@mac)
# @mac blocks @dee from making any more friendship actions
@mac.block_friend(@dee)
# @mac unblocks @dee
# Only @mac can perform this action
@mac.unblock_friend(@dee)
Checking friendship
# Check if there is an accepted friendship between @mac and @dee
@mac.friends_with?(@dee)
Type of friends
There are four types of friends:
- requested_friends
- pending_friends
- blocked_friends
- friends
Each type returns an array of friends, which should be looped through to access specific friends. They can be accessed using association.
requested_friends
Instances that sent friend request that has not been accepted.
@mac.friend_request(@dee)
@dee.requested_friends # => [@mac]
pending_friends
Instances that received but has not accepted the friend request.
@mac.friend_request(@dee)
@mac.pending_friends # => [@dee]
blocked_friends
Instances that are blocked from taking any friendship actions
@dee.friend_request(@mac)
@mac.block_friend(@dee)
@mac.blocked_friends # => [@dee]
friends
Instances with accepted Friendship.
@mac.friend_request(@dee)
@dee.accept_request(@mac)
@mac.friends # => [@dee]
@dee.friends # => [@mac]
Custom validations
You can provide custom validations for the friendship
by implementing friendship_errors
method on your Friendable model.
Returning an array with any elements will result in the friendship not being established.
def friendship_errors(wannabe_friend)
return if can_become_friends_with?(wannabe_friend)
[
"Cannot become friends with #{wannabe_friend.email}",
]
end
Callbacks
To use callbacks you can add methods described below to your Friendable model.
def on_friendship_created(friendship)
...
end
def on_friendship_accepted(friendship)
...
end
def on_friendship_blocked(friendship)
...
end
def on_friendship_destroyed(friendship)
...
end