Best way to store Enum value in ActiveRecord and convert to string for display

Question

I am trying to figure out what is the best way to store an enum value in activerecord but convert it to a 'title' for display in an app.

I.E.

Review Enum:

UNREVIEWED = {:title => "Unreviewed", :name => "UNREVIEWED"}
REVIEWED = {:title => "Reviewed", :name => "REVIEWED"}
FLAGGED = {:title => "Flagged as inappropriate", :name => "FLAGGED"} 

So in java land I was used to storing the ENUMs name ie (REVIEWED) in the database and then converting that name into that actual enum on the server such that I could call helper methods on it, ie:

review = Review.valueOf(review)
review.title()

Is there something similar I can do in rails to accomplish this?

FYI we are trying to keep our app super small so if I can easily accomplish this or something similar without a GEM that would be great.

Any 'standard' way to do this, as I imagine I am not the first to struggle with this issue?

Thanks!

Answer 1

ActiveRecord enums is the best way to go since it's a part of the framework (since version 4.1).

Its usage is quite simple:

Migration:

class AddEnumToMyModel < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    add_column :my_model, :status, :integer, default: 0
  end
end

Model:

class MyModel < ActiveRecord::Base
  enum status: [:draft, :beta, :public]
end

Then use it a will:

MyModel.draft # gets all drafts
MyModel.last.draft? # checks if the last model is draft
MyModel.last.status # gets the string description of the status of my model

For mode information refer to documentation.

Answer 2

there are a lot of posts about this issue, i guess that this points to most of them: http://thinkinginrails.com/2010/04/using-enums-for-constants/

i think that this is an over engineered thing, that you don't need in a dynamically typed language like ruby.

just use strings!

you could then use that like:

class Review < ActiveRecord::Base
  validates_inclusion_of :status, :in => ["UNREVIEWED", "REVIEWED", "FLAGGED"]
  def status
    read_attribute(:status)
  end
  def status= (value)
    write_attribute(:status, value)
  end
end