# EZ

For educational purposes only.  Makes Rails a bit more beginner-friendly.

## Usage

```ruby
gem 'ez', group: 'development'
```

## Features

### 1. Console Enhancements

* Fixes the "no connection" message in Rails >= 4.0.1 (if you try to inspect a model without making a query first) by establishing an initial connection to the development database.
* Shows helpful instructions when console starts, including the list of model classes found in the application.
* Uses Hirb for table-like display. (Depends on Hirb ~> 0.7.1)
* Patches Hirb to allow nice table output for `ActiveRecord::Relation` lists (i.e. result of `.all`, `.where`) and hash-like output for single ActiveRecord objects, such as the result of `.find_by(:title => 'Apollo 13')`.

### 2. Route Enhancements

* Patches the Rails dispatcher to avoid writing controllers for simple views by adding route support for `get "url" => "folder/file"`

### 3. Model Enhancements

* Run `rake ez:generate_yml` to generate a file named `db/models.yml`.  It will have some self-documenting comments inside of it.  This file is also automatically generated if you run `rake ez:tables` without an existing `models.yml` first.
* Enables instant modeling without migrations via `models.yml` and `rake ez:tables`.  If things get messed up, use `rake ez:reset_tables` to drop the entire db first.
* Columns default to type `string` if none is provided and the column name doesn't have a recognized suffix.
* Column names ending in `_id` are assumed to be of type `integer`.
* Column names ending in `_at` are assumed to be of type `datetime`.
* Column names ending in `_on` are assumed to be of type `date`.
* Boolean columns are assumed to be given a default of `false`.
* Adds ActiveRecord::Base `.read` method to provide symmetry with `.create`, `.update`, and `.delete`
* Adds ActiveRecord::Base `.sample` method to choose a random row.

### 4. Controller and View Enhancements

* Easier JSON API calls by calling `EZ.from_api(url)`; returns parsed Ruby hash (or array, etc.)
* Built-in view helper `<%= weather %>` and `EZ.weather` for classroom demo of a JSON API, to get quick hash and avoid gory details.  (Relies on http://openweathermap.org).  Default location is Evanston.  Can pass location: `<%= weather('San Diego, CA') %>`.  The `<%= weather %>` helper just delegates to `EZ.weather`.
* Adds controller and view helpers `current_user`, `user_signed_in?`, `sign_in_as`, and `sign_out` to avoid cookies/session hash details
* Adds view helper `map` to display a quick static map of any address. Example: `<%= map('Millenium Park, Chicago, IL') %>`