with_options(options) public

An elegant way to factor duplication out of options passed to a series of method calls. Each method called in the block, with the block variable as the receiver, will have its options merged with the default options hash provided. Each method called on the block variable must take an options hash as its final argument. 

  with_options :order => 'created_at', :class_name => 'Comment' do |post|
    post.has_many :comments, :conditions => ['approved = ?', true], :dependent => :delete_all
    post.has_many :unapproved_comments, :conditions => ['approved = ?', false]
    post.has_many :all_comments
  end

Can also be used with an explicit receiver: 

  map.with_options :controller => "people" do |people|
    people.connect "/people",     :action => "index"
    people.connect "/people/:id", :action => "show"
  end
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February 23, 2009
6 thanks

Nested with_options

You can nest with_options blocks, and you can even use the same name for the block parameter each time. E.g.:

class Product
  with_options :dependent => :destroy do |product|
    product.with_options :class_name => 'Media' do |product|
      product.has_many :images, :conditions => {:content_type => 'image'}
      product.has_many :videos, :conditions => {:content_type => 'video'}
    end

    product.has_many :comments
  end
end
May 18, 2012
0 thanks

Beware nested with_options clobbers!

Careful:

with_options :foo => :bar do |something|
  something.with_options :foo => :baz do |inner|
    what_is(:foo)
  end
end

:foo will be :baz. It will not be [:bar, :baz], for example.

This bit me when trying to do nested with_options for validation where both had :if => something.