Rails core - Mar 2009 - About attr_readonly, attr_protected, attr_accessible as instance methods

Hello all,

my first post to Rails Core - so please bear with me if I missed
something obvious, this once. :-)

I followed the discussion about attr_readonly being somewhat
inconsistent with interest. I am currently involved in a project where
- I think - making attr_readonly and/or attr_protected an instance
method of ActiveRecord::Base, instead of (or in addition to) a class
method, would make absolute sense, and I''m wondering what one would
need to do to achieve this.

Rationale: there are quite a few cases where some attributes should
not be changeable, depending on some condition. For example:

class User < AR:Base
  attr_protected :firstname, :lastname, :gender_id, :birthdate, :if
=> :passport_verified?
end

Bonus: a FormBuilder can read these attributes from the live @object
and automatically set form fields ''disabled'' if they are
protected or
read only, but need to be displayed. This is exactly what I''m trying
to achieve, and this is why simple validations don''t work: I need the
status of the attribute "live", not only upon saving. Plus, there
might be several instances of one object in memory (eg. @user, @admin)
and in this case they''d need separate values for attr_protected.

The "if" and "unless" option already exist in validations,
so I took
my time digging through Rails core (and learnt quite a bit), however
I''m not quite sure

- if this makes any sense at all (or maybe my idea is even easier
implemented another way?)
- if this has been done elsewhere (I''ve been googling, but nothing
found so far)
- how to proceed.

Also, now that I''ve already spent some nights in front of the Rails
source, somebody will probably say "oh, all you''ve got to do is
$three_liner" ...

But nevertheless, any suggestions would be highly appreciated!

Thanks,

Jens

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Ruby on Rails: Core" group.
To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-core@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
rubyonrails-core+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-core?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---