module StateMachine::Integrations::ActiveModel

Adds support for integrating state machines with ActiveModel classes.

Examples

If using ActiveModel directly within your class, then any one of the following features need to be included in order for the integration to be detected:

Below is an example of a simple state machine defined within an ActiveModel class:

class Vehicle
  include ActiveModel::Observing
  include ActiveModel::Validations

  attr_accessor :state
  define_attribute_methods [:state]

  state_machine :initial => :parked do
    event :ignite do
      transition :parked => :idling
    end
  end
end

The examples in the sections below will use the above class as a reference.

Actions

By default, no action will be invoked when a state is transitioned. This means that if you want to save changes when transitioning, you must define the action yourself like so:

class Vehicle
  include ActiveModel::Validations
  attr_accessor :state

  state_machine :action => :save do
    ...
  end

  def save
    # Save changes
  end
end

Validations

As mentioned in StateMachine::Machine#state, you can define behaviors, like validations, that only execute for certain states. One important caveat here is that, due to a constraint in ActiveModel’s validation framework, custom validators will not work as expected when defined to run in multiple states. For example:

class Vehicle
  include ActiveModel::Validations

  state_machine do
    ...
    state :first_gear, :second_gear do
      validate :speed_is_legal
    end
  end
end

In this case, the :speed_is_legal validation will only get run for the :second_gear state. To avoid this, you can define your custom validation like so:

class Vehicle
  include ActiveModel::Validations

  state_machine do
    ...
    state :first_gear, :second_gear do
      validate {|vehicle| vehicle.speed_is_legal}
    end
  end
end

Validation errors

In order to hook in validation support for your model, the ActiveModel::Validations feature must be included. If this is included and an event fails to successfully fire because there are no matching transitions for the object, a validation error is added to the object’s state attribute to help in determining why it failed.

For example,

vehicle = Vehicle.new
vehicle.ignite                # => false
vehicle.errors.full_messages  # => ["State cannot transition via \"ignite\""]

In addition, if you’re using the ignite! version of the event, then the failure reason (such as the current validation errors) will be included in the exception that gets raised when the event fails. For example, assuming there’s a validation on a field called name on the class:

vehicle = Vehicle.new
vehicle.ignite!       # => StateMachine::InvalidTransition: Cannot transition state via :ignite from :parked (Reason(s): Name cannot be blank)

Security implications

Beware that public event attributes mean that events can be fired whenever mass-assignment is being used. If you want to prevent malicious users from tampering with events through URLs / forms, the attribute should be protected like so:

class Vehicle
  include ActiveModel::MassAssignmentSecurity
  attr_accessor :state

  attr_protected :state_event
  # attr_accessible ... # Alternative technique

  state_machine do
    ...
  end
end

If you want to only have some events be able to fire via mass-assignment, you can build two state machines (one public and one protected) like so:

class Vehicle
  include ActiveModel::MassAssignmentSecurity
  attr_accessor :state

  attr_protected :state_event # Prevent access to events in the first machine

  state_machine do
    # Define private events here
  end

  # Public machine targets the same state as the private machine
  state_machine :public_state, :attribute => :state do
    # Define public events here
  end
end

Callbacks

All before/after transition callbacks defined for ActiveModel models behave in the same way that other ActiveSupport callbacks behave. The object involved in the transition is passed in as an argument.

For example,

class Vehicle
  include ActiveModel::Validations
  attr_accessor :state

  state_machine :initial => :parked do
    before_transition any => :idling do |vehicle|
      vehicle.put_on_seatbelt
    end

    before_transition do |vehicle, transition|
      # log message
    end

    event :ignite do
      transition :parked => :idling
    end
  end

  def put_on_seatbelt
    ...
  end
end

Note, also, that the transition can be accessed by simply defining additional arguments in the callback block.

Observers

In order to hook in observer support for your application, the ActiveModel::Observing feature must be included. Because of the way ActiveModel observers are designed, there is less flexibility around the specific transitions that can be hooked in. However, a large number of hooks are supported. For example, if a transition for a object’s state attribute changes the state from parked to idling via the ignite event, the following observer methods are supported:

The following class shows an example of some of these hooks:

class VehicleObserver < ActiveModel::Observer
  # Callback for :ignite event *before* the transition is performed
  def before_ignite(vehicle, transition)
    # log message
  end

  # Callback for :ignite event *after* the transition has been performed
  def after_ignite(vehicle, transition)
    # put on seatbelt
  end

  # Generic transition callback *before* the transition is performed
  def after_transition(vehicle, transition)
    Audit.log(vehicle, transition)
  end

  def after_failure_to_transition(vehicle, transition)
    Audit.error(vehicle, transition)
  end
end

More flexible transition callbacks can be defined directly within the model as described in StateMachine::Machine#before_transition and StateMachine::Machine#after_transition.

To define a single observer for multiple state machines:

class StateMachineObserver < ActiveModel::Observer
  observe Vehicle, Switch, Project

  def after_transition(object, transition)
    Audit.log(object, transition)
  end
end

Internationalization

Any error message that is generated from performing invalid transitions can be localized. The following default translations are used:

en:
  activemodel:
    errors:
      messages:
        invalid: "is invalid"
        # %{value} = attribute value, %{state} = Human state name
        invalid_event: "cannot transition when %{state}"
        # %{value} = attribute value, %{event} = Human event name, %{state} = Human current state name
        invalid_transition: "cannot transition via %{event}"

You can override these for a specific model like so:

en:
  activemodel:
    errors:
      models:
        user:
          invalid: "is not valid"

In addition to the above, you can also provide translations for the various states / events in each state machine. Using the Vehicle example, state translations will be looked for using the following keys, where model_name = “vehicle”, machine_name = “state” and state_name = “parked”:

Event translations will be looked for using the following keys, where model_name = “vehicle”, machine_name = “state” and event_name = “ignite”:

An example translation configuration might look like so:

es:
  activemodel:
    state_machines:
      states:
        parked: 'estacionado'
      events:
        park: 'estacionarse'

Dirty Attribute Tracking

When using the ActiveModel::Dirty extension, your model will keep track of any changes that are made to attributes. Depending on your ORM, an object will only be saved when there are attributes that have changed on the object. When integrating with state_machine, typically the state field will be marked as dirty after a transition occurs. In some situations, however, this isn’t the case.

If you define loopback transitions in your state machine, the value for the machine’s attribute (e.g. state) will not change. Unless you explicitly indicate so, this means that your object won’t persist anything on a loopback. For example:

class Vehicle
  include ActiveModel::Validations
  include ActiveModel::Dirty
  attr_accessor :state

  state_machine :initial => :parked do
    event :park do
      transition :parked => :parked, ...
    end
  end
end

If, instead, you’d like your object to always persist regardless of whether the value actually changed, you can do so by using the #{attribute}_will_change! helpers or defining a before_transition callback that actually changes an attribute on the model. For example:

class Vehicle
  ...
  state_machine :initial => :parked do
    before_transition all => same do |vehicle|
      vehicle.state_will_change!

      # Alternative solution, updating timestamp
      # vehicle.updated_at = Time.curent
    end
  end
end

Creating new integrations

If you want to integrate state_machine with an ORM that implements parts or all of the ActiveModel API, only the machine defaults need to be specified. Otherwise, the implementation is similar to any other integration.

For example,

module StateMachine::Integrations::MyORM
  include StateMachine::Integrations::ActiveModel

  @defaults = {:action = > :persist}

  def self.matches?(klass)
    defined?(::MyORM::Base) && klass <= ::MyORM::Base
  end

  protected
    def runs_validations_on_action?
      action == :persist
    end
end

If you wish to implement other features, such as attribute initialization with protected attributes, named scopes, or database transactions, you must add these independent of the ActiveModel integration. See the ActiveRecord implementation for examples of these customizations.

Public Class Methods

active?() click to toggle source
  # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model/versions.rb
5 def self.active?
6   !defined?(::ActiveModel::VERSION) || ::ActiveModel::VERSION::MAJOR == 2
7 end
matching_ancestors() click to toggle source

Classes that include ActiveModel::Observing or ActiveModel::Validations will automatically use the ActiveModel integration.

    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
371 def self.matching_ancestors
372   %w(ActiveModel ActiveModel::Observing ActiveModel::Validations)
373 end

Public Instance Methods

errors_for(object) click to toggle source

Describes the current validation errors on the given object. If none are specific, then the default error is interpeted as a “halt”.

    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
391 def errors_for(object)
392   object.errors.empty? ? 'Transition halted' : object.errors.full_messages * ', '
393 end
invalidate(object, attribute, message, values = []) click to toggle source

Adds a validation error to the given object

    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
376 def invalidate(object, attribute, message, values = [])
377   if supports_validations?
378     attribute = self.attribute(attribute)
379     options = values.inject({}) do |h, (key, value)|
380       h[key] = value
381       h
382     end
383     
384     default_options = default_error_message_options(object, attribute, message)
385     object.errors.add(attribute, message, options.merge(default_options))
386   end
387 end
reset(object) click to toggle source

Resets any errors previously added when invalidating the given object

    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
396 def reset(object)
397   object.errors.clear if supports_validations?
398 end

Protected Instance Methods

add_callback(type, options, &block) click to toggle source

Creates a new callback in the callback chain, always inserting it before the default Observer callbacks that were created after initialization.

Calls superclass method
    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
520 def add_callback(type, options, &block)
521   options[:terminator] = callback_terminator
522   
523   if supports_observers?
524     @callbacks[type == :around ? :before : type].insert(-2, callback = Callback.new(type, options, &block))
525     add_states(callback.known_states)
526     callback
527   else
528     super
529   end
530 end
add_default_callbacks() click to toggle source

Adds a set of default callbacks that utilize the Observer extensions

    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
482 def add_default_callbacks
483   if supports_observers?
484     callbacks[:before] << Callback.new(:before) {|object, transition| notify(:before, object, transition)}
485     callbacks[:after] << Callback.new(:after) {|object, transition| notify(:after, object, transition)}
486     callbacks[:failure] << Callback.new(:failure) {|object, transition| notify(:after_failure_to, object, transition)}
487   end
488 end
add_events(new_events) click to toggle source

Configures new event with the built-in humanize scheme

Calls superclass method
    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
540 def add_events(new_events)
541   super.each do |new_event|
542     new_event.human_name = lambda {|event, klass| translate(klass, :event, event.name)}
543   end
544 end
add_states(new_states) click to toggle source

Configures new states with the built-in humanize scheme

Calls superclass method
    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
533 def add_states(new_states)
534   super.each do |new_state|
535     new_state.human_name = lambda {|state, klass| translate(klass, :state, state.name)}
536   end
537 end
after_initialize() click to toggle source

Initializes class-level extensions and defaults for this machine

Calls superclass method
    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
463 def after_initialize
464   super
465   load_locale
466   load_observer_extensions
467   add_default_callbacks
468 end
ancestors_for(klass) click to toggle source

Build a list of ancestors for the given class to use when determining which localization key to use for a particular string.

    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
458 def ancestors_for(klass)
459   klass.lookup_ancestors
460 end
around_validation(object) { || ... } click to toggle source

Runs state events around the object’s validation process

    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
513 def around_validation(object)
514   object.class.state_machines.transitions(object, action, :after => false).perform { yield }
515 end
callback_terminator() click to toggle source

Gets the terminator to use for callbacks

    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
421 def callback_terminator
422   @terminator ||= lambda {|result| result == false}
423 end
default_error_message_options(object, attribute, message) click to toggle source

The default options to use when generating messages for validation errors

    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
432 def default_error_message_options(object, attribute, message)
433   {:message => @messages[message]}
434 end
define_action_helpers() click to toggle source

Adds hooks into validation for automatically firing events

Calls superclass method
    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
501 def define_action_helpers
502   super
503   define_validation_hook if runs_validations_on_action?
504 end
define_state_accessor() click to toggle source

Skips defining reader/writer methods since this is done automatically

    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
491 def define_state_accessor
492   name = self.name
493   
494   owner_class.validates_each(attribute) do |object, attr, value|
495     machine = object.class.state_machine(name)
496     machine.invalidate(object, :state, :invalid) unless machine.states.match(object)
497   end if supports_validations?
498 end
define_validation_hook() click to toggle source

Hooks into validations by defining around callbacks for the :validation event

    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
508 def define_validation_hook
509   owner_class.set_callback(:validation, :around, self, :prepend => true)
510 end
i18n_scope(klass) click to toggle source

Determines the base scope to use when looking up translations

    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
426 def i18n_scope(klass)
427   klass.i18n_scope
428 end
load_locale() click to toggle source

Loads any locale files needed for translating validation errors

    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
471 def load_locale
472   I18n.load_path.unshift(@integration.locale_path) unless I18n.load_path.include?(@integration.locale_path)
473 end
load_observer_extensions() click to toggle source

Loads extensions to ActiveModel’s Observers

    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
476 def load_observer_extensions
477   require 'state_machine/integrations/active_model/observer'
478   require 'state_machine/integrations/active_model/observer_update'
479 end
notify(type, object, transition) click to toggle source

Notifies observers on the given object that a callback occurred involving the given transition. This will attempt to call the following methods on observers:

  • #{type}_#{qualified_event}from#{from}to#{to}

  • #{type}_#{qualified_event}from#{from}

  • #{type}_#{qualified_event}to#{to}

  • #{type}_#{qualified_event}

  • #{type}transition#{machine_name}from#{from}to#{to}

  • #{type}transition#{machine_name}from#{from}

  • #{type}transition#{machine_name}to#{to}

  • #{type}transition#{machine_name}

  • #{type}_transition

This will always return true regardless of the results of the callbacks.

    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
561 def notify(type, object, transition)
562   name = self.name
563   event = transition.qualified_event
564   from = transition.from_name || 'nil'
565   to = transition.to_name || 'nil'
566   
567   # Machine-specific updates
568   ["#{type}_#{event}", "#{type}_transition_#{name}"].each do |event_segment|
569     ["_from_#{from}", nil].each do |from_segment|
570       ["_to_#{to}", nil].each do |to_segment|
571         object.class.changed if object.class.respond_to?(:changed)
572         object.class.notify_observers('update_with_transition', ObserverUpdate.new([event_segment, from_segment, to_segment].join, object, transition))
573       end
574     end
575   end
576   
577   # Generic updates
578   object.class.changed if object.class.respond_to?(:changed)
579   object.class.notify_observers('update_with_transition', ObserverUpdate.new("#{type}_transition", object, transition))
580   
581   true
582 end
runs_validations_on_action?() click to toggle source

Do validations run when the action configured this machine is invoked? This is used to determine whether to fire off attribute-based event transitions when the action is run.

    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
416 def runs_validations_on_action?
417   false
418 end
supports_observers?() click to toggle source

Whether observers are supported in the integration. Only true if ActiveModel::Observer is available.

    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
403 def supports_observers?
404   defined?(::ActiveModel::Observing) && owner_class <= ::ActiveModel::Observing
405 end
supports_validations?() click to toggle source

Whether validations are supported in the integration. Only true if the ActiveModel feature is enabled on the owner class.

    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
409 def supports_validations?
410   defined?(::ActiveModel::Validations) && owner_class <= ::ActiveModel::Validations
411 end
translate(klass, key, value) click to toggle source

Translates the given key / value combo. Translation keys are looked up in the following order:

  • #{i18n_scope}.state_machines.#{model_name}.#{machine_name}.#{plural_key}.#{value}

  • #{i18n_scope}.state_machines.#{model_name}.#{plural_key}.#{value}

  • #{i18n_scope}.state_machines.#{machine_name}.#{plural_key}.#{value}

  • #{i18n_scope}.state_machines.#{plural_key}.#{value}

If no keys are found, then the humanized value will be the fallback.

    # File lib/state_machine/integrations/active_model.rb
444 def translate(klass, key, value)
445   ancestors = ancestors_for(klass)
446   group = key.to_s.pluralize
447   value = value ? value.to_s : 'nil'
448   
449   # Generate all possible translation keys
450   translations = ancestors.map {|ancestor| :"#{ancestor.model_name.to_s.underscore}.#{name}.#{group}.#{value}"}
451   translations.concat(ancestors.map {|ancestor| :"#{ancestor.model_name.to_s.underscore}.#{group}.#{value}"})
452   translations.concat([:"#{name}.#{group}.#{value}", :"#{group}.#{value}", value.humanize.downcase])
453   I18n.translate(translations.shift, :default => translations, :scope => [i18n_scope(klass), :state_machines])
454 end