UUIDParameter

The UUIDParameter module provides support for UUIDs in ActiveRecord models.

It takes care of generating (if one was not provided), validating, and keeping this UUID intact, protecting the :uuid field from being changed once set.

Models including the UUIDParameter module will:

• use their :uuid rather than their :id (primary key) for URLs.
• accept an given UUID on creation to allow offline resource generation.

Features

• Can be used with existing models (simply add a uuid column): saving the model with nil values will provide a new UUID.
• Does not affect existing primary key.
• Can accept any valid random UUID (version 4) provided externally.
• Automatically generates a UUID on :create if one is not set.
• Only works with UUID version 4 (random).
• Prevents changing the UUID once set.
• Silently ignores any attempt at changing a set UUID.
• Overrides :to_param to provide the UUID instead of the primary key.

Anti-Features

• If the database already contains invalid UUIDv4 data, the affected records will become impossible to save: this is to ensure that you can check your referential integrity. You can still force #reset_uuid! to bypass this, or use SQL directly in the database. (See #1)

I18n

Translations are in progress (See #2): specs are now passing thanks to a hack. To add a new translation, please edit or create the corresponding file in config/locale.

Usage

Add a uuid column to your model if it does not have one already:

$ rails g migration AddUuidColumnToUser uuid:string{36}
$ rails db:migrate

If you're using Postgres, you should use the native uuid type instead:

$ rails g migration AddUuidColumnToUser uuid:uuid
$ rails db:migrate

Then, simply include the module in your model:

class User < ApplicationRecord
  include UUIDParameter
end

# u = User.create  # Generates a new UUID
# u.id             # => 123 (does not change primary key)
# u.uuid           # => '8bb27724-7439-4965-9598-883419179b21'
# u.to_param       # => '8bb27724-7439-4965-9598-883419179b21'
# u.uuid = SecureRandom.uuid
# u.save           # Silently ignores changes to :uuid
# u.reload         # Instead, it restores the original:
# u.uuid           # => '8bb27724-7439-4965-9598-883419179b21'

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'uuid_parameter'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install uuid_parameter

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on Gitlab at https://gitlab.com/incommon.cc/uuid_parameter.

See ChangeLog and commit messages.

The Github repository is a mirror to facilitate integration with other Rails development, but I don't like Microsoft, and never will. They may show the face they like, they come from enemity and, as far as I'm concerned, will remain there.

Development

After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. Run specifications with bundle exec rake.

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. See bundle exec rake -T for more options.

You can now use bin/console to get a nice Pry console for development.

License

This gem is free software under the same license terms as Rails.