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https://github.com/chaps-io/public_activity

Easy activity tracking for models - similar to Github's Public Activity
https://github.com/chaps-io/public_activity

activerecord activity-stream hackertoberfest news-feed rails ruby tracking

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Easy activity tracking for models - similar to Github's Public Activity

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README 

        
# PublicActivity [![Code Climate](https://codeclimate.com/github/chaps-io/public_activity.svg)](https://codeclimate.com/github/chaps-io/public_activity) [![Gem Version](https://badge.fury.io/rb/public_activity.svg)](http://badge.fury.io/rb/public_activity)



`public_activity` provides easy activity tracking for your **ActiveRecord**, **Mongoid 3** and **MongoMapper** models

in Rails 6.1+. Simply put: it records what has been changed or created and gives you the ability to present those

recorded activities to users - similarly to how GitHub does it.



## Table of contents



- [Ruby/Rails version support](#ruby-rails-version-support)

- [Table of contents](#table-of-contents)

- [Example](#example)

  - [Online demo](#online-demo)

- [Screencast](#screencast)

- [Setup](#setup)

  - [Gem installation](#gem-installation)

  - [Database setup](#database-setup)

  - [Model configuration](#model-configuration)

    - [Custom activities](#custom-activities)

  - [Displaying activities](#displaying-activities)

    - [Layouts](#layouts)

    - [Locals](#locals)

    - [Activity views](#activity-views)

    - [I18n](#I18n)

- [Testing](#testing)

- [Documentation](#documentation)

- [Common examples](#common-examples)

- [Help](#help)

- [License](#license)



## Ruby/Rails version support



Version `~> 3.0`` supports Ruby 3.0+ and Rails 6.1+. For older Ruby versions

(≤2.7) and Rails 5.0+ you can use version `~> 2.0` until you can upgrade to

newer versions of Ruby + Rails.



Issues related to those unsupported versions of Ruby/Rails will be closed

without resolution and PRs will not be accepted.



## Example



Here is a simple example showing what this gem is about:



![Example usage](http://i.imgur.com/q0TVx.png)



### Demo app



The source code of the demo is hosted here: https://github.com/pokonski/activity_blog



## Screencast



Ryan Bates made a [great screencast](http://railscasts.com/episodes/406-public-activity) describing how to integrate Public Activity in your Rails Application.



## Setup



### Gem installation



You can install `public_activity` as you would any other gem:



    gem install public_activity



or in your Gemfile:



```ruby

gem 'public_activity'

```



### Database setup



By default _public_activity_ uses Active Record. If you want to use Mongoid or MongoMapper as your backend, create

an initializer file in your Rails application with the corresponding code inside:



For _Mongoid:_



```ruby

# config/initializers/public_activity.rb

PublicActivity::Config.set do

  orm :mongoid

end

```



For _MongoMapper:_



```ruby

# config/initializers/public_activity.rb

PublicActivity::Config.set do

  orm :mongo_mapper

end

```



**(ActiveRecord only)** Create migration for activities and migrate the database (in your Rails project):



    rails g public_activity:migration

    rake db:migrate



### Model configuration



Include `PublicActivity::Model` and add `tracked` to the model you want to keep track of:



For _ActiveRecord:_



```ruby

class Article < ActiveRecord::Base

  include PublicActivity::Model

  tracked

end

```



For _Mongoid:_



```ruby

class Article

  include Mongoid::Document

  include PublicActivity::Model

  tracked

end

```



For _MongoMapper:_



```ruby

class Article

  include MongoMapper::Document

  include PublicActivity::Model

  tracked

end

```



And now, by default create/update/destroy activities are recorded in activities table.

This is all you need to start recording activities for basic CRUD actions.



_Optional_: If you don't need `#tracked` but still want the comfort of `#create_activity`,

you can include only the lightweight `Common` module instead of `Model`.



#### Custom activities



You can trigger custom activities by setting all your required parameters and triggering `create_activity`

on the tracked model, like this:



```ruby

@article.create_activity key: 'article.commented_on', owner: current_user

```



See this entry http://rubydoc.info/gems/public_activity/PublicActivity/Common:create_activity for more details.



### Displaying activities



To display them you simply query the `PublicActivity::Activity` model:



```ruby

# notifications_controller.rb

def index

  @activities = PublicActivity::Activity.all

end

```



And in your views:



```erb

<%= render_activities(@activities) %>

```



*Note*: `render_activity` is a helper for use in view templates. `render_activity(activity)` can be written as `activity.render(self)` and it will have the same meaning.



*Note*: `render_activities` is an alias for `render_activity` and does the same.



#### Layouts



You can also pass options to both `activity#render` and `#render_activity` methods, which are passed deeper

to the internally used `render_partial` method.

A useful example would be to render activities wrapped in layout, which shares common elements of an activity,

like a timestamp, owner's avatar etc:



```erb

<%= render_activities(@activities, layout: :activity) %>

```



The activity will be wrapped with the `app/views/layouts/_activity.erb` layout, in the above example.



**Important**: please note that layouts for activities are also partials. Hence the `_` prefix.



#### Locals



Sometimes, it's desirable to pass additional local variables to partials. It can be done this way:



```erb

<%= render_activity(@activity, locals: {friends: current_user.friends}) %>

```



*Note*: Before 1.4.0, one could pass variables directly to the options hash for `#render_activity` and access it from activity parameters. This functionality is retained in 1.4.0 and later, but the `:locals` method is **preferred**, since it prevents bugs from shadowing variables from activity parameters in the database.



#### Activity views



`public_activity` looks for views in `app/views/public_activity`.



For example, if you have an activity with `:key` set to `"activity.user.changed_avatar"`, the gem will look for a partial in `app/views/public_activity/user/_changed_avatar.(erb|haml|slim|something_else)`.



*Hint*: the `"activity."` prefix in `:key` is completely optional and kept for backwards compatibility, you can skip it in new projects.



If a view file does not exist, then p_a falls back to the old behaviour and tries to translate the activity `:key` using `I18n#translate` method (see the section below).



#### I18n



Translations are used by the `#text` method, to which you can pass additional options in form of a hash. `#render` method uses translations when view templates have not been provided. You can render pure i18n strings by passing `{display: :i18n}` to `#render_activity` or `#render`.



Translations should be put in your locale `.yml` files. To render pure strings from I18n Example structure:



```yaml

activity:

  article:

    create: 'Article has been created'

    update: 'Someone has edited the article'

    destroy: 'Some user removed an article!'

```



This structure is valid for activities with keys `"activity.article.create"` or `"article.create"`. As mentioned before, `"activity."` part of the key is optional.



## Testing



For RSpec you can first disable `public_activity` and add the `test_helper` in `rails_helper.rb` with:



```ruby

#rails_helper.rb

require 'public_activity/testing'



PublicActivity.enabled = false

```



In your specs you can then blockwise decide whether to turn `public_activity` on

or off.



```ruby

# file_spec.rb

PublicActivity.with_tracking do

  # your test code goes here

end



PublicActivity.without_tracking do

  # your test code goes here

end

```



## Documentation



For more documentation go [here](http://rubydoc.info/gems/public_activity/index)



## Common examples



* [[How to] Set the Activity's owner to current_user by default](https://github.com/pokonski/public_activity/wiki/%5BHow-to%5D-Set-the-Activity's-owner-to-current_user-by-default)

* [[How to] Disable tracking for a class or globally](https://github.com/pokonski/public_activity/wiki/%5BHow-to%5D-Disable-tracking-for-a-class-or-globally)

* [[How to] Create custom activities](https://github.com/pokonski/public_activity/wiki/%5BHow-to%5D-Create-custom-activities)

* [[How to] Use custom fields on Activity](https://github.com/pokonski/public_activity/wiki/%5BHow-to%5D-Use-custom-fields-on-Activity)



## Help



If you need help with using public_activity please visit our discussion group and ask a question there:



https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/public-activity



Please do not ask general questions in the Github Issues.



## License

Copyright (c) 2011-2013 Piotrek Okoński, released under the MIT license