Active Record — Object-relational mapping put on rails

Active Record connects classes to relational database tables to establish an almost zero-configuration persistence layer for applications. The library provides a base class that, when subclassed, sets up a mapping between the new class and an existing table in the database. In the context of an application, these classes are commonly referred to as models. Models can also be connected to other models; this is done by defining associations.

Active Record relies heavily on naming in that it uses class and association names to establish mappings between respective database tables and foreign key columns. Although these mappings can be defined explicitly, it’s recommended to follow naming conventions, especially when getting started with the library.

A short rundown of some of the major features:

  • Automated mapping between classes and tables, attributes and columns. 
     class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
 end

 The Product class is automatically mapped to the table named "products",
 which might look like this:

 CREATE TABLE products (
   id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
   name varchar(255),
   PRIMARY KEY  (id)
 );

 This would also define the following accessors: `Product#name` and
 `Product#name=(new_name)`

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  • Associations between objects defined by simple class methods. 
     class Firm < ActiveRecord::Base
   has_many   :clients
   has_one    :account
   belongs_to :conglomerate
 end

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  • Aggregations of value objects. 
     class Account < ActiveRecord::Base
   composed_of :balance, :class_name => "Money",
               :mapping => %w(balance amount)
   composed_of :address,
               :mapping => [%w(address_street street), %w(address_city city)]
 end

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  • Validation rules that can differ for new or existing objects. 
      class Account < ActiveRecord::Base
    validates_presence_of     :subdomain, :name, :email_address, :password
    validates_uniqueness_of   :subdomain
    validates_acceptance_of   :terms_of_service, :on => :create
    validates_confirmation_of :password, :email_address, :on => :create
  end

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  • Callbacks available for the entire life cycle (instantiation, saving, destroying, validating, etc.). 
     class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
   before_destroy :invalidate_payment_plan
   # the `invalidate_payment_plan` method gets called just before Person#destroy
 end

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  • Observers that react to changes in a model. 
     class CommentObserver < ActiveRecord::Observer
   def after_create(comment) # is called just after Comment#save
     CommentMailer.new_comment_email("david@loudthinking.com", comment).deliver
   end
 end

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  • Inheritance hierarchies. 
     class Company < ActiveRecord::Base; end
 class Firm < Company; end
 class Client < Company; end
 class PriorityClient < Client; end

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  • Transactions. 
      # Database transaction
  Account.transaction do
    david.withdrawal(100)
    mary.deposit(100)
  end

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  • Reflections on columns, associations, and aggregations. 
      reflection = Firm.reflect_on_association(:clients)
  reflection.klass # => Client (class)
  Firm.columns # Returns an array of column descriptors for the firms table

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  • Database abstraction through simple adapters. 
      # connect to SQLite3
  ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection(:adapter => "sqlite3", :database => "dbfile.sqlite3")

  # connect to MySQL with authentication
  ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection(
    :adapter  => "mysql2",
    :host     => "localhost",
    :username => "me",
    :password => "secret",
    :database => "activerecord"
  )

    Learn more and read about the built-in support for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite3.

  • Logging support for Log4r and Logger. 
      ActiveRecord::Base.logger = Logger.new(STDOUT)
  ActiveRecord::Base.logger = Log4r::Logger.new("Application Log")
  • Database agnostic schema management with Migrations. 
      class AddSystemSettings < ActiveRecord::Migration
    def up
      create_table :system_settings do |t|
        t.string  :name
        t.string  :label
        t.text    :value
        t.string  :type
        t.integer :position
      end

      SystemSetting.create :name => "notice", :label => "Use notice?", :value => 1
    end

    def down
      drop_table :system_settings
    end
  end

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Philosophy

Active Record is an implementation of the object-relational mapping (ORM) pattern by the same name described by Martin Fowler: 

  "An object that wraps a row in a database table or view,
  encapsulates the database access, and adds domain logic on that data."

Active Record attempts to provide a coherent wrapper as a solution for the inconvenience that is object-relational mapping. The prime directive for this mapping has been to minimize the amount of code needed to build a real-world domain model. This is made possible by relying on a number of conventions that make it easy for Active Record to infer complex relations and structures from a minimal amount of explicit direction.

Convention over Configuration:

  • No XML-files!
  • Lots of reflection and run-time extension
  • Magic is not inherently a bad word

Admit the Database:

  • Lets you drop down to SQL for odd cases and performance
  • Doesn’t attempt to duplicate or replace data definitions

Download and installation

The latest version of Active Record can be installed with RubyGems: 

  % [sudo] gem install activerecord

Source code can be downloaded as part of the Rails project on GitHub

License

Active Record is released under the MIT license.

Support

API documentation is at

Bug reports and feature requests can be filed with the rest for the Ruby on Rails project here: