Hashtags

Rails engine to facilitate inline text hashtags.

• hashtags are entered inline in text, for example as @tomasc, #location:Home(12345) or $my_variable
• when rendered, they are replaced by actual values, for example HTML tags, images, links etc.

Additionally:

• the user can be assisted with a dropdown triggered by a special character (#, @, $, ...)
• a Mongoid field option add support for .to_markup and .to_hashtag methods and more
• hashtags typically have cache_key defined on class so corresponding fragment cache can be easily expired

TODOs:

• There's an implicit support for Mongoid, but it should be very easy to make that conditional ev. add support for other ORMs or libs such as Virtus etc.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'hashtags'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install hashtags

Usage

The three following types are included in this gem, however the gem's design allows for definition of new types and their subclassing.

Hash tag types

User hash tag

@tomasc

Resource hash tag

These typically include human-readable version of the resource (in the example below it would be Home).

#location:Home(12345)

Variable hash tag

$number_of_users

Adding new hash tags in your application

The following are quick examples. It is advised to read the source code of Hashtags::User, Hashtags::Resource and Hashtags::Variable and their superclass Hashtags::Builder in order to fully understand the possibilities and flexibility of this gem.

User

See Hashtags::User and override its methods on your subclass as necessary. Typically it would be at least the following:

class UserTag < Hashtags::User
  def self.resource_class
    # User
  end

  def self.tag_attribute
    # name of attribute to be used in the tag
    # @<tag_attribute>
    # for example :username
  end

  def self.result_attribute
    # the tags will be replaced by this attribute
    # for example :full_name
  end

  def self.resources_for_query(query)
    # return resources matching query
    # this will be called from the controller as user types
  end

  def resource(tag_attribute_value)
    # this should find and return resource object
    # self.class.resource_class.find(value)
  end
end

Implement the values class method instead of the resources_for_query to preload values.

Resource

See Hashtags::Resource and override its methods on your subclass as necessary. Typically it would be at least the following:

class LocationTag < Hashtags::Resource
  def self.resource_class
    # Location
  end

  def self.tag_attribute
    # name of attribute to be used in the tag
    # #<tag_attribute>(id)
    # for example :to_s
  end

  def self.result_attribute
    # the tags will be replaced by this attribute
    # for example :to_s
  end

  def self.resources_for_query(query)
    # return resources matching query
    # this will be called from the controller as user types
  end

  def resource(value)
    # this should find and return resource object
    # self.class.resource_class.find(value)
  end
end

Implement the values class method instead of the resources_for_query to preload values.

Variable

See Hashtags::Variable and override its methods on your subclass as necessary. Typically it would be at least the following:

class VariableTag < Hashtags::Variable
  def self.values(hashtag_classes = Hashtags::Variable.descendants)
    # %w(
    #   variable_1
    #   variable_2
    # )
  end

  def markup(match)
    # case name(match)
    # when 'variable_1' then 'foo'
    # when 'variable_2' then 'bar'
    # end
  end
end

Usage in an app

Core

str = 'Current document: #doc:Foo(123).'
Hashtags::Builder.to_markup(str) # => 'Current document: Foo.'

Since the hashtags might contain human-readable values (as in the Resource tags), it is often helpful to update them:

doc.title = 'Bar'
Hashtags::Builder.to_hashtag(str) # => 'Current document: #doc:Bar(123).'

Optionally, a list of only/except classes can be specified, useful for example for limiting available hashtags in certain situations.

Hashtags::Builder.to_markup(str, only: [LocationTag])
Hashtags::Builder.to_hashtag(str, except: [UserTag])

With Mongoid Extension

In case you are using Mongoid, you can use the hashtags options to enable hashtags processing and additional helpers. The hashtags will be also automatically processed whenever you save your data to the database (using the above-mentioned to_hashtag method).

class MyDoc
  include Mongoid::Document
  field :text, type: String, hashtags: true # or { only: … } or # { except: … }
end

my_doc.text.to_markup # => field value with hashtags converted to markup
my_doc.text.to_hashtag # => field value with hashtags updated

Next to that the following helper class methods will be defined:

MyDoc.hashtags['text'].dom_data # => outcome of builder's dom_data method
MyDoc.hashtags['text'].help # => outcome of builder's help method
MyDoc.hashtags['text'].options # => hashtags builder options { only: … } or { except: … }

With JS textcomplete plugin

Finally, it is fairly straightforward to add support for JS textcomplete that assists the user when inserting tags.

Require the hashtags javascript.

// application.js
//= require hashtags

In routes:

mount Hashtags::Engine => '/'

Optionally add default CSS.

/* application.css */
/*
 *= require hashtags
*/

In a form:

fieldset
  = form.text_area :text, data: form.object.class.hashtags['text'].dom_data
  = render_hashtags_help_for(form.object.class, :text)

Development

After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. Then, run rake test to run the tests. You can also run bin/console for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.

To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install. To release a new version, update the version number in version.rb, and then run bundle exec rake release, which will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and tags, and push the .gem file to rubygems.org.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/tomasc/hashtags.

License

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