deepakprasanna / objectify

Objects on rails. ZOMG.

objectify

Objectify is a framework that codifies good object oriented design practices for building maintainable rails applications. For more on the motivations that led to objectify, check out this blog post: http://jamesgolick.com/2012/5/22/objectify-a-better-way-to-build-rails-applications.html

How it works

Objectify has two primary components:

1. A request execution framework that separates the responsibilities that are typically jammed together in rails controller actions in to 3 types of components: Policies, Services, and Responders. Properly separating and assigning these responsibilities makes code far more testable, and facilitates better reuse of components.

The flow of an objectify request is as follows:

0. Objectify actions are configured in the routes file:

  ```ruby
    # config/routes.rb
    # ... snip ...
    objectify.resources :pictures
  ```

  Objectify currently only supports resourceful actions, but that's just a temporary thing.

1. The policy chain is resolved (based on the various levels of configuration) and executed. Objectify calls the `#allowed?(...)` method on each policy in the chain. If one of the policies fails, the chain short-circuits at that point, and objectify executes the configured responder for that policy.

  An example Policy:

  ```ruby
    class RequiresLoginPolicy
      # more on how current user gets injected below
      def allowed?(current_user) 
        !current_user.nil?
      end
    end
  ```

  A responder, in case that policy fails.

  ```ruby
    class UnauthenticatedResponder
      # yes, at some point we probably need a better interface
      # for handling responses, but this'll do for now.
      def call(controller, renderer)
        renderer.redirect_to controller.login_url
      end
    end
  ```

  Here's how you setup the RequiresLoginPolicy to run by default (you can configure specific actions to ignore it), and connect the policy with its responder.

  ```ruby
    # config/routes.rb
    MyApp::Application.routes.draw do
      objectify.defaults :policies => :requires_login
      objectify.policy_responders :requires_login => :unauthenticated
    end
  ```

2. If all the policies succeed, the service for that action is executed. A service is typically responsible for fetching and / or manipulating data.

  A very simple example of a service:

  ```ruby
    class PicturesCreateService
      # the current_user and the request's params will be automatically injected here.
      def call(current_user, params)
        current_user.pictures.create params[:picture]
      end
    end
  ```

3. Finally, the responder is executed. Following with our `Pictures#create` example:

  ```ruby
    class PicturesCreateResponder
      # service_result is exactly what it sounds like
      def call(service_result, controller, renderer)
        if service_result.persisted?
          renderer.redirect_to service_result
        else
          # this is the only way that you can pass data to the view layer
          # and you can only pass one thing. Hint: use a presenter.
          renderer.data(service_result)
          renderer.render :template => "pictures/edit.html.erb"
        end
      end
    end
  ```

2. A dependency injection framework. Objectify automatically injects dependencies into objects it manages based on parameter names. So, if you have a service method signature like PictureCreationService#call(params), objectify will automatically inject the request's params when it calls that method. It's very simple to create custom injections by implementing Resolver classes. More on that below.

What if I have a bunch of existing rails code?

Objectify has a legacy mode that allows you to execute the policy chain as a before_filter in your ApplicationController. You can also configure policies (and skip_policies) for your "legacy" actions. That way, access control code is shared between the legacy and objectified components of your application.

I completely rewrote our legacy authentication system as a set of objectify policies, resolvers, and services - I'm gonna package that up and release it soon.

Here's how to run the policy chain in your ApplicationController - it'll figure out which policies to run itself:

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  include Objectify::Rails::ControllerHelpers

  around_filter :objectify_around_filter
  before_filter :execute_policy_chain
end

And to configure policies for a legacy action:

# config/routes.rb
MyApp::Application.routes.draw do
  objectify.defaults :policies => :requires_login
  objectify.policy_responders :requires_login => :unauthenticated
  objectify.legacy_action :controller, :action, :policies => [:x, :y, :z],
                                                :skip_policies => [:requires_login]
end

Then, you need to create an ObjectifyController that inherits from ApplicationController, and configure objectify to use that:

# app/controllers/objectify_controller.rb
class ObjectifyController < ApplicationController
  include Objectify::Rails::LegacyControllerBehaviour
end

# config/application.rb
module MyApp
  class Application < Rails::Application
    # ...snip...
    objectify.objectify_controller = "objectify"
  end
end

Custom Injections

Several of the above methods have parameters named current_user. By default, objectify won't know how to inject a parameter by that name, so it'll raise an error when it encounters one. Here's how to create a custom resolver for it that'll automatically get found by name.

# app/resolvers/current_user_resolver.rb
class CurrentUserResolver
  def initialize(user_finder = User)
    @user_finder = user_finder
  end

  # note that resolvers themselves get injected
  def call(session)
    @user_finder.find_by_id(session[:current_user_id])
  end
end

Why did you constructor-inject the User constant in to the CurrentUserResolver?

Because that makes it possible to test in isolation.

describe "CurrentUserResolver" do
  before do
    @user        = stub("User")
    @user_finder = stub("UserFinder", :find_by_id => nil)
    @user_finder.stubs(:find_by_id).with(10).returns(@user)

    @resolver = CurrentUserResolver.new(@user_finder)
  end

  it "returns whatever the finder returns" do
    @resolver.call({:current_user_id => 42}).should be_nil
    @resolver.call({:current_user_id => 10}).should == @user
  end
end

Views

Objectify has two major impacts on your views.

1. You can only pass one variable from an objectified action to the controller. You do that by calling renderer.data(the_object_you_want_to_pass). Then, you call objectify_data in the view to fetch the data. If it's not there, it'll raise an error. Use a presenter or some kind of other struct object to pass multiple objects to your views.

2. You can reuse your policies in your views. require "objectify/rails/helpers" and add Objectify::Rails::Helpers to your helpers list, and you'll get a helper called #policy_allowed?(policy_name). Yay code reuse.

Installation

# Gemfile
gem "objectify", "> 0"

# config/application.rb
module MyApp
  class Application < Rails::Application
    require "objectify/rails/application"
    require "objectify/rails/controller"
    # only have to require this if you want objectify logging
    require "objectify/rails/log_subscriber" 
    include Objectify::Rails::Application
  end
end

Issues

We're using this thing in production to serve millions of requests every day. However, it's far from being complete. Here are some of the problems that still need solving:

• Support for all the kinds of routing that rails does.
• Caching of policy results per-request, so we don't have to run them twice if they're used in views.
• Smarter injection strategies, and possibly caching.
• ???

Credits

• Author: James Golick @jamesgolick
• Advice (and the idea for injections based on method parameter names): Gary Bernhardt @garybernhardt
• Feedback: Jake Douglas @jakedouglas
• Feedback: Julie Haché @juliehache
• The gem name: Andrew Kiellor @akiellor

The other objectify gem

If you were looking for the gem that used to be called objectify on rubygems.org, it's here: https://github.com/akiellor/objectify

Copyright

Copyright (c) 2012 James Golick, BitLove Inc. See LICENSE.txt for further details.