Question

I’d like to use a Ruby Module to store a set of configuration defaults.

I’m having some problems using the values and hope someone could help.

This may not be the best way to do this but this is what I’ve come up with so far.

Here is a module to hold value for a persons Resume => resume.rb

module Resume
  require 'ostruct'

  attr_reader :personal, :education

  @personal = OpenStruct.new

  @education = Array.new

  def self.included(base)
    set_personal
    set_education
  end

  def self.set_personal
    @personal.name          = "Joe Blogs"
    @personal.email_address = '[e-mail]'
    @personal.phone_number  = '5555 55 55 555'
  end

  def self.set_education
    @education << %w{ School\ 1 Description\ 1 }
    @education << %w{ School\ 2 Description\ 2 }
  end
end

From irb it works fine:

% irb -I .
1.9.3-p194 :001 > require 'resume'
 => true 
1.9.3-p194 :002 > include Resume
 => Object 
1.9.3-p194 :003 > puts Resume.personal.name
Joe Blogs
 => nil 

However when I include this into a class it throws and error => build.rb

require 'resume'

class Build
  include Resume

  def build
    puts Resume.personal.name
  end
end

From irb:

% irb -I .
1.9.3-p194 :001 > require 'build'
 => true 
1.9.3-p194 :002 > b = Build.new
 => #<Build:0x00000001d0ebb0> 
1.9.3-p194 :003 > b.build
NoMethodError: undefined method `personal' for Resume:Module
    from /home/oolyme/projects/lh_resume_builder_ruby/build.rb:7:in `build'
    from (irb):3
    from /home/oolyme/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/bin/irb:16:in `<main>'

I’ve tried a few variations to output the include module variables in the Build class instance but all error out.

Answer 1

attr_accessor creates a couple of instance methods, meaning that they will be available on an instance of Build. But you clearly want class instance methods. Change definition of your module to this:

module Resume
  require 'ostruct'

  def self.personal
    @personal
  end

  def self.education
    @education
  end

  def self.included(base)
    @personal = OpenStruct.new
    @education = Array.new

    set_personal
    set_education
  end

  def self.set_personal
    @personal.name          = "Joe Blogs"
    @personal.email_address = '[e-mail]'
    @personal.phone_number  = '5555 55 55 555'
  end

  def self.set_education
    @education << %w{ School\ 1 Description\ 1 }
    @education << %w{ School\ 2 Description\ 2 }
  end
end

And it’ll work

b = Build.new
b.build # >> Joe Blogs