Rails - Apr 2006 - acts_as_taggable magic.... please explain

Hi,

There is a line in acts_as_taggable plugin:
               
send(acts_as_taggable_options[:from]).tags.find_or_create_by_name(name).on(self)

could someone explain what is:
send(xxx)
and
.on(self)

I cannot find it rDoc

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Hi,
>
send(acts_as_taggable_options[:from]).tags.find_or_create_by_name(name).on(self)
> could someone explain what is:
> send(xxx)
>   
"Send" sends a message to an object.
So |"|Wiktor Schmidt|".send(:length) if equivalent to "|Wiktor 
Schmidt|".||length

In the case below, the :from option lets you |attribute the tag to 
another object.

Class Photo
    acts_as_taggable :from => :current_user
end

 So the code above that you were asking about will then call 
Photo.current_user.tags.find ..... instead of Photo.tags.find ....
Check out this chapter in the Pickaxe for some more info on send.
http://www.rubycentral.com/book/ospace.html
> .on(self)
The on method is part of acts as taggable. You can find it in tag.rb

def on(taggable)
  taggings.create :taggable => taggable
end

So if we simply it a bit:

#With the current user, find or create a tag called "mynewtag" and
associate it with Photo
#Actual Code ->
send(acts_as_taggable_options[:from]).tags.find_or_create_by_name(name).on(self)
#Code with hardcoded values
Photo.current_user.tags.find_or_create_by_name("mynewtag").on(Photo)

You can check out this post on Rails Wheenie for some extra help.
http://rails.techno-weenie.net/question/2006/3/6/how_to_add_user_to_acts_as_taggable

Hopefully this helps out a bit.

Cheers,
Eric Goodwin

--
Eric Goodwin
http://www.ericgoodwin.com

"send" is a method available on all objects you can use to call an  
arbitrary method.  object.send(:method, param) in Ruby is like object 
[''method''](param) in Javascript.

Used in this context, acts_as_taggable_options[:from] contains a  
symbol for an association that responds to :tags.  This returns the  
an association proxy of tags for that object, limiting the tags you  
create to a given tag space.

''find_or_create_by_name'' will call the class method delegated
from
the ''tags'' association.  This returns a single Tag instance.

''on'' is a method on the Tag instance that will create the join
model
to make the association between your model and the new/reused tag.

This roundabout way of creating the join model is needed because of  
the polymorphic association.  For an explanation, take a look at:  
http://blog.hasmanythrough.com/articles/2006/04/17/join-models-not- 
proxy-collections

HTH,
Sean

On Apr 20, 2006, at 6:41 PM, Wiktor Schmidt wrote:
> Hi,
>
> There is a line in acts_as_taggable plugin:
>                 send(acts_as_taggable_options 
> [:from]).tags.find_or_create_by_name(name).on(self)
>
> could someone explain what is:
> send(xxx)
> and
> .on(self)
>
> I cannot find it rDoc
>
> -- 
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
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> Rails mailing list
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