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Ruby

Posted by Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Courses Plus Student 7,487 Points

Decorators

In the adding social features course, the decorators lesson does not seem to be working at all. I get totally different file headers that do not work with the code presented after installing the gem 'draper' running the bundle install command and using bin/rails generate decorator user_friendship. What I get it the file with a header of: class UserFriendshipDecorator < Draper::Decorator delegate_all

and: require 'test_helper' class UserFriendshipDecoratorTest < Draper::TestCase

I have tried to use the presented code anyway, but it does not work. Then I tried to replace the different code with all of the code presented, which does not work either.

Being new at this, I could use some help.

1 Answer

Ralph Robot
Ralph Robot
217 Points
Ralph Robot
Ralph Robot
217 Points

I'm unfamiliar with that particular Treehouse course, but do have experience with decorators. I have written about decorator implementations in Ruby and have tried the Draper gem, but decided to avoid it.

Using Draper results in technically better object-oriented programming and makes it easier to obey Tell, Don’t Ask. However, it blurs the lines of MVC, introduces a permanent Parallel Hierarchy problem, and increases the already high prevalence of Shotgun Surgery in Rails app.

It’s a theoretical improvement that results in higher maintenance and obscurity in the real world. I avoid it unless I'm facing serious problems with view helpers, which is what Draper replaces.