DRY with_options

One of the cool features in ActiveSupport is with_options.

It helps you remove duplication:

belongs_to :playlist, touch: true,  inverse_of: :devices
belongs_to :company,  inverse_of: :devices

Will become:

with_options inverse_of: :devices do |a|
  a.belongs_to :playlist, touch: true
  a.belongs_to :company
end

However, there is one gotcha which was unclear for me after reading apidock.

When using ActiveRecord associations you have to use block variable to define associations like in example above. So this:

with_options inverse_of: :devices do
  belongs_to :playlist, touch: true
  belongs_to :company
end

Will not work! However, when using validations, delegations, attr_* it’s not required and you can write this:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  with_options to: :profile, allow_nil: true do
    delegate :locale, :email, :gender, :time_zone, :first_name, :last_name
  end

  with_options presence: true do
    validates :login, length: { maximum: 256 }
    validates :password
  end
end

Conclusion

Use with_options, but remember to add block variable when using it for ActiveRecord associations.

Conclusion

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