Works similar to scopes. Rather than modifying the where clause of the ActiveRecord::Relation, it creates a common table expression (CTE) to be applied upon execution.

Unlike scopes, they do not affect the values of attributes upon creation.

• Ruby 2.3+
• ActiveRecord 4.2+

Note: Check the builds to be sure your version is in-fact supported. The requirements are left unbounded on the upper constraint for posterity, but may not be gaurenteed to work.

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'active_record-framing'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install active_record-framing

Any ActiveRecord::Base descendant has access to two additional methods: frame and default_frame.

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  default_frame { where(active: true) }
  # ...
end

Afterwards, User.all.to_sql yields

WITH "users" AS
  (SELECT "users".* FROM "users" WHERE "users"."active" = true)
SELECT "users".* FROM "users"

class Admin < User
  default_frame { where(arel_table[:kind].eq(1)) }
  # ...
end

Note: In ActiveRecord versions less than 5.2 (Arel 9.0), default_frames where clauses must be constructed with arel (arel_table[:column] etc) for values other than nil, true, and false. This is due to a limitation with what ActiveRecord calls "bind values" (beyond the scope of this document).

Afterwards, Admin.all.to_sql yields

WITH "users" AS
  (SELECT "users".* FROM "users" WHERE "users"."kind" = 1)

Similar to how named_scopes work in ActiveRecord, frames can be named:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  frame :admin, -> { where(arel_table[:kind].eq(1)) }
  # ...
end

Named frames are accessed through assigned consts under the original class. This helps avoid collision with scopes, and helps indicate the mutual exclusivity of frames (by design).

User::Admin.all.to_sql
# =>
# WITH "admin/users" AS
#   (SELECT "users".* FROM "users" WHERE "users".kind = 1)
# SELECT "admin/users".* FROM "admin/users"

After checking out the repo, run bundle to install dependencies. Then, run bundle exec rspec to run the tests.

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/TwilightCoders/active_record-framing. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the Contributor Covenant code of conduct.

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.