# Settings Gem

This is improved from rails-settings, added caching for all settings.
Settings is a plugin that makes managing a table of global key, value pairs easy.
Think of it like a global Hash stored in you database, that uses simple ActiveRecord
like methods for manipulation.  Keep track of any global setting that you dont want
to hard code into your rails app.  You can store any kind of object.  Strings, numbers,
arrays, or any object. Ported to Rails 3!

## Status

[![CI Status](https://secure.travis-ci.org/huacnlee/rails-settings-cached.png)](http://travis-ci.org/huacnlee/rails-settings-cached)

## Setup

Edit your Gemfile:

```ruby
gem "rails-settings-cached"
```

Generate your settings:

```bash
$ rails g settings <settings_name>
```

Now just put that migration in the database with:
    
```bash
rake db:migrate
```

## Usage

The syntax is easy.  First, lets create some settings to keep track of:

```ruby
Setting.admin_password = 'supersecret'
Setting.date_format    = '%m %d, %Y'
Setting.cocktails      = ['Martini', 'Screwdriver', 'White Russian']
Setting.foo            = 123
Setting.credentials    = { :username => 'tom', :password => 'secret' }
```

Now lets read them back:

```ruby
Setting.foo            # returns 123
```

Changing an existing setting is the same as creating a new setting:

```ruby
Setting.foo = 'super duper bar'
```

For changing an existing setting which is a Hash, you can merge new values with existing ones:

```ruby
Setting.merge!(:credentials, :password => 'topsecret')
Setting.credentials    # returns { :username => 'tom', :password => 'topsecret' }
```

Decide you dont want to track a particular setting anymore?

```ruby
Setting.destroy :foo
Setting.foo            # returns nil
```

Want a list of all the settings?

```ruby
Setting.all    
# returns {'admin_password' => 'super_secret', 'date_format' => '%m %d, %Y'}        
```

You need name spaces and want a list of settings for a give name space? Just choose your prefered named space delimiter and use Setting.all like this:

```ruby
Setting['preferences.color'] = :blue
Setting['preferences.size'] = :large
Setting['license.key'] = 'ABC-DEF'
Setting.all('preferences.')   
# returns { 'preferences.color' => :blue, 'preferences.size' => :large }
```

Set defaults for certain settings of your app.  This will cause the defined settings to return with the
Specified value even if they are **not in the database**.  Make a new file in `config/initializers/default_settings.rb`
with the following:

```ruby
Setting.defaults[:some_setting] = 'footastic'
Setting.where(:var => "some_setting").count
=> 0
Setting.some_setting   
=> "footastic"
```

Init defualt value in database, this has indifferent with `Setting.defaults[:some_setting]`, this will **save the value into database**:

```ruby
Setting.save_default(:some_key) = "123"
Setting.where(:var => "some_key").count
=> 1
Setting.some_key 
=> "123"
```
  


Settings may be bound to any existing ActiveRecord object. Define this association like this:
Notice! is not do caching in this version.
  
```ruby
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  include RailsSettings::Extend 
end
```

Then you can set/get a setting for a given user instance just by doing this:

```ruby
user = User.find(123)
user.settings.color = :red
user.settings.color # returns :red
user.settings.all # { "color" => :red }
```

I you want to find users having or not having some settings, there are named scopes for this:

```ruby
User.with_settings 
# => returns a scope of users having any setting

User.with_settings_for('color') 
# => returns a scope of users having a 'color' setting

User.without_settings 
# returns a scope of users having no setting at all (means user.settings.all == {})

User.without_settings('color') 
# returns a scope of users having no 'color' setting (means user.settings.color == nil)
```

That's all there is to it! Enjoy!