README.md
# Drafting
This Ruby gem enhances `ActiveRecord::Base` to save a draft version of the current instance.
[](https://github.com/ledermann/drafting/actions)
[](https://codeclimate.com/github/ledermann/drafting)
[](https://coveralls.io/r/ledermann/drafting?branch=master)
## Features
* The gem stores all the data in **one** separate table and does not need to modify the existing tables
* It handles drafts for different models
* It allows saving draft for an instance which does not pass the validations
* A draft stores associations and virtual attributes, too
* A draft is optionally linked to a given user, so every user can manage his own drafts (invisible for the other users)
* A draft is optionally linked to a parent instance. This helps showing existing drafts in a context (e.g. message drafts for a given topic)
* Only 90 lines of code
## Requirements
- Ruby 3.0 or newer
- ActiveRecord 6.1 or newer (including 7.1)
## Installation
Add this line to your application's Gemfile:
```ruby
gem 'drafting'
```
And then execute:
$ bundle
Or install it yourself as:
$ gem install drafting
Finally, generate and run the migration:
$ rails g drafting:migration
$ rake db:migrate
## Usage
### Simple example
```ruby
class Message < ActiveRecord::Base
has_drafts
end
message = Message.new content: "Let's start with a simple example."
message.save_draft(current_user)
# Time passes ...
draft = Message.drafts(current_user).first
message = draft.restore
message.save!
drafts = Message.drafts(current_user)
messages = drafts.restore_all
```
### Migration
#### 0.5.x
Starting from 0.5.x, you will be able to save drafts under a non `User` model as such:
```
message.save_draft(author)
```
If you are upgrading from previous versions, simply run `rails g drafting:migration` again to generate the mising migration files.
### Linking to parent instance
```ruby
class Topic < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :messages
end
class Message < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :topic
has_drafts parent: :topic
end
topic = Topic.create! title: 'World domination'
message = topic.messages.build content: 'First step: Get some coffee.'
message.save_draft(current_user)
# Time passes ...
draft = topic.drafts(current_user).first
# or
draft = Topic.child_drafts(current_user).first
message = draft.restore
message.save!
```
### Hints
* `save_draft` is allowed only if the instance is not persisted yet
* Doing `save_draft` overwrites a previous draft (if there is one)
* After doing a `save`, the draft (if there is one) will be deleted
* The `user` argument can be nil if you don't want to distinguish between multiple users
* Saving draft stores the data via `Marshal.dump` and `Marshal.load`. If you don't like this or need some customization, you can override the instance methods `dump_to_draft` and `load_from_draft` (see source)
## Development
After checking out the repo, run `bin/setup` to install dependencies. Then, run `rake spec` to run the tests. You can also run `bin/console` for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.
To install this gem onto your local machine, run `bundle exec rake install`. To release a new version, update the version number in `version.rb`, and then run `bundle exec rake release`, which will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and tags, and push the `.gem` file to [rubygems.org](https://rubygems.org).
## Contributing
Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/ledermann/drafting. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the [Contributor Covenant](https://contributor-covenant.org) code of conduct.
## License
The gem is available as open source under the terms of the [MIT License](http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT).
Based on some code from the outdated gem [drafts](https://rubygems.org/gems/drafts). Used with kind permission of Alexey Kuznetsov (@lxkuz).