Creates a new state machine with the given name. The default name, if not
specified, is :state
.
Configuration options:
:attribute
- The name of the attribute to store the state
value in. By default, this is the same as the name of the machine.
:initial
- The initial state of the attribute. This can be a
static state or a lambda block which will be evaluated at runtime (e.g.
lambda {|vehicle| vehicle.speed == 0 ? :parked : :idling}). Default is nil.
:initialize
- Whether to automatically initialize the
attribute by hooking into initialize on the owner class. Default is true.
:action
- The instance method to invoke when an object
transitions. Default is nil unless otherwise specified by the configured
integration.
:namespace
- The name to use for namespacing all generated
state / event instance methods (e.g. “heater” would generate
:turn_on_heater and :turn_off_heater for the :turn_on/:turn_off events).
Default is nil.
:integration
- The name of the integration to use for adding
library-specific behavior to the machine. Built-in integrations include
:active_model, :active_record, :data_mapper, :mongo_mapper, and :sequel.
By default, this is determined automatically.
Configuration options relevant to ORM integrations:
:plural
- The pluralized version of the name. By default,
this will attempt to call pluralize
on the name. If this
method is not available, an “s” is appended. This is used for generating
scopes.
:messages
- The error messages to use when invalidating
objects due to failed transitions. Messages include:
:invalid
:invalid_event
:invalid_transition
:use_transactions
- Whether transactions should be used when
firing events. Default is true unless otherwise specified by the
configured integration.
This also expects a block which will be used to actually configure the states, events and transitions for the state machine. Note that this block will be executed within the context of the state machine. As a result, you will not be able to access any class methods unless you refer to them directly (i.e. specifying the class name).
For examples on the types of state machine configurations and blocks, see the section below.
With the default name/attribute and no configuration:
class Vehicle state_machine do event :park do ... end end end
The above example will define a state machine named “state” that will store
the value in the state
attribute. Every vehicle will start
without an initial state.
With a custom name / attribute:
class Vehicle state_machine :status, :attribute => :status_value do ... end end
With a static initial state:
class Vehicle state_machine :status, :initial => :parked do ... end end
With a dynamic initial state:
class Vehicle state_machine :status, :initial => lambda {|vehicle| vehicle.speed == 0 ? :parked : :idling} do ... end end
The following class methods will be automatically generated by the state machine based on the name of the machine. Any existing methods will not be overwritten.
human_state_name(state)
- Gets the humanized value for the
given state. This may be generated by internationalization libraries if
supported by the integration.
human_state_event_name(event)
- Gets the humanized value for
the given event. This may be generated by internationalization libraries
if supported by the integration.
For example,
class Vehicle state_machine :state, :initial => :parked do event :ignite do transition :parked => :idling end event :shift_up do transition :idling => :first_gear end end end Vehicle.human_state_name(:parked) # => "parked" Vehicle.human_state_name(:first_gear) # => "first gear" Vehicle.human_state_event_name(:park) # => "park" Vehicle.human_state_event_name(:shift_up) # => "shift up"
The following instance methods will be automatically generated by the state machine based on the name of the machine. Any existing methods will not be overwritten.
state
- Gets the current value for the attribute
state=(value)
- Sets the current value for the attribute
state?(name)
- Checks the given state name against the current
state. If the name is not a known state, then an ArgumentError is raised.
state_name
- Gets the name of the state for the current value
human_state_name
- Gets the human-readable name of the state
for the current value
state_events(requirements = {})
- Gets the list of events that
can be fired on the current object's state (uses the
unqualified event names)
state_transitions(requirements = {})
- Gets the list of
transitions that can be made on the current object's state
state_paths(requirements = {})
- Gets the list of sequences of
transitions that can be run from the current object's state
fire_state_event(name, *args)
- Fires an arbitrary event with
the given argument list. This is essentially the same as calling the actual
event method itself.
The state_events
, state_transitions
, and
state_paths
helpers all take an optional set of requirements
for determining what's available for the current object. These
requirements include:
:from
- One or more states to transition from. If none are
specified, then this will be the object's current state.
:to
- One or more states to transition to. If none are
specified, then this will match any to state.
:on
- One or more events to transition on. If none are
specified, then this will match any event.
:guard
- Whether to guard transitions with the if/unless
conditionals defined for each one. Default is true.
For example,
class Vehicle state_machine :state, :initial => :parked do event :ignite do transition :parked => :idling end event :park do transition :idling => :parked end end end vehicle = Vehicle.new vehicle.state # => "parked" vehicle.state_name # => :parked vehicle.human_state_name # => "parked" vehicle.state?(:parked) # => true # Changing state vehicle.state = 'idling' vehicle.state # => "idling" vehicle.state_name # => :idling vehicle.state?(:parked) # => false # Getting current event / transition availability vehicle.state_events # => [:park] vehicle.park # => true vehicle.state_events # => [:ignite] vehicle.state_events(:from => :idling) # => [:park] vehicle.state_events(:to => :parked) # => [] vehicle.state_transitions # => [#<StateMachine::Transition attribute=:state event=:ignite from="parked" from_name=:parked to="idling" to_name=:idling>] vehicle.ignite # => true vehicle.state_transitions # => [#<StateMachine::Transition attribute=:state event=:park from="idling" from_name=:idling to="parked" to_name=:parked>] vehicle.state_transitions(:on => :ignite) # => [] # Getting current path availability vehicle.state_paths # => [ # [#<StateMachine::Transition attribute=:state event=:park from="idling" from_name=:idling to="parked" to_name=:parked>, # #<StateMachine::Transition attribute=:state event=:ignite from="parked" from_name=:parked to="idling" to_name=:idling>] # ] vehicle.state_paths(:guard => false) # => # [#<StateMachine::Transition attribute=:state event=:park from="idling" from_name=:idling to="parked" to_name=:parked>, # #<StateMachine::Transition attribute=:state event=:ignite from="parked" from_name=:parked to="idling" to_name=:idling>] # ] # Fire arbitrary events vehicle.fire_state_event(:park) # => true
For most classes, the initial values for state machine attributes are
automatically assigned when a new object is created. However, this
behavior will not work if the class defines an
initialize
method without properly calling super
.
For example,
class Vehicle state_machine :state, :initial => :parked do ... end end vehicle = Vehicle.new # => #<Vehicle:0xb7c8dbf8 @state="parked"> vehicle.state # => "parked"
In the above example, no initialize
method is defined. As a
result, the default behavior of initializing the state machine attributes
is used.
In the following example, a custom initialize
method is
defined:
class Vehicle state_machine :state, :initial => :parked do ... end def initialize end end vehicle = Vehicle.new # => #<Vehicle:0xb7c77678> vehicle.state # => nil
Since the initialize
method is defined, the state machine
attributes never get initialized. In order to ensure that all
initialization hooks are called, the custom method must
call super
without any arguments like so:
class Vehicle state_machine :state, :initial => :parked do ... end def initialize(attributes = {}) ... super() end end vehicle = Vehicle.new # => #<Vehicle:0xb7c8dbf8 @state="parked"> vehicle.state # => "parked"
Because of the way the inclusion of modules works in Ruby, calling
super()
will not only call the superclass's
initialize
, but also initialize
on all included
modules. This allows the original state machine hook to get called
properly.
If you want to avoid calling the superclass's constructor, but still want to initialize the state machine attributes:
class Vehicle state_machine :state, :initial => :parked do ... end def initialize(attributes = {}) ... initialize_state_machines end end vehicle = Vehicle.new # => #<Vehicle:0xb7c8dbf8 @state="parked"> vehicle.state # => "parked"
All of the valid states for the machine are automatically tracked based on the events, transitions, and callbacks defined for the machine. If there are additional states that are never referenced, these should be explicitly added using the StateMachine::Machine#state or StateMachine::Machine#other_states helpers.
When a new state is defined, a predicate method for that state is generated on the class. For example,
class Vehicle state_machine :initial => :parked do event :ignite do transition all => :idling end end end
…will generate the following instance methods (assuming they're not already defined in the class):
parked?
idling?
Each predicate method will return true if it matches the object's current state. Otherwise, it will return false.
The actual value for a state is stored in the attribute configured for the state machine. In most cases, this is the same as the name of the state machine. For example:
class Vehicle attr_accessor :state state_machine :state, :initial => :parked do ... state :parked, :value => 0 start :idling, :value => 1 end end vehicle = Vehicle.new # => #<Vehicle:0xb712da60 @state=0> vehicle.state # => 0 vehicle.parked? # => true vehicle.state = 1 vehicle.idling? # => true
The most important thing to note from the example above is what it means to
read from and write to the state machine's attribute. In particular,
#state_machine
treats the attribute (state
in this case) like a basic
attr_accessor that's been defined on the class. There are no special
behaviors added, such as allowing the attribute to be written to based on
the name of a state in the machine. This is the case for a few reasons:
Setting the attribute directly is an edge case that is meant to only be used when you want to skip #state_machine altogether. This means that #state_machine shouldn't have any effect on the attribute accessor methods. If you want to change the state, you should be using one of the events defined in the state machine.
Many ORMs provide custom behavior for the attribute reader / writer - it may even be defined by your own framework / method implementation just the example above showed. In order to avoid having to worry about the different ways an attribute can get written, #state_machine just makes sure that the configured value for a state is always used when writing to the attribute.
If you were interested in accessing the name of a state (instead of its actual value through the attribute), you could do the following:
vehicle.state_name # => :idling
Events defined on the machine are the interface to transitioning states for an object. Events can be fired either directly (through the method generated for the event) or indirectly (through attributes defined on the machine).
For example,
class Vehicle include DataMapper::Resource property :id, Serial state_machine :initial => :parked do event :ignite do transition :parked => :idling end end state_machine :alarm_state, :initial => :active do event :disable do transition all => :off end end end # Fire +ignite+ event directly vehicle = Vehicle.create # => #<Vehicle id=1 state="parked" alarm_state="active"> vehicle.ignite # => true vehicle.state # => "idling" vehicle.alarm_state # => "active" # Fire +disable+ event automatically vehicle.alarm_state_event = 'disable' vehicle.save # => true vehicle.alarm_state # => "off"
In the above example, the state
attribute is transitioned
using the ignite
action that's generated from the state
machine. On the other hand, the alarm_state
attribute is
transitioned using the alarm_state_event
attribute that
automatically gets fired when the machine's action (save
)
is invoked.
For more information about how to configure an event and its associated transitions, see StateMachine::Machine#event.
Within the state_machine
block, you can also define callbacks
for transitions. For more information about defining these callbacks, see
StateMachine::Machine#before_transition,
StateMachine::Machine#after_transition,
and StateMachine::Machine#around_transition,
and StateMachine::Machine#after_failure.
When a namespace is configured for a state machine, the name provided will be used in generating the instance methods for interacting with states/events in the machine. This is particularly useful when a class has multiple state machines and it would be difficult to differentiate between the various states / events.
For example,
class Vehicle state_machine :heater_state, :initial => :off, :namespace => 'heater' do event :turn_on do transition all => :on end event :turn_off do transition all => :off end end state_machine :alarm_state, :initial => :active, :namespace => 'alarm' do event :turn_on do transition all => :active end event :turn_off do transition all => :off end end end
The above class defines two state machines: heater_state
and
alarm_state
. For the heater_state
machine, the
following methods are generated since it's namespaced by “heater”:
can_turn_on_heater?
turn_on_heater
…
can_turn_off_heater?
turn_off_heater
..
heater_off?
heater_on?
As shown, each method is unique to the state machine so that the states and
events don't conflict. The same goes for the alarm_state
machine:
can_turn_on_alarm?
turn_on_alarm
…
can_turn_off_alarm?
turn_off_alarm
..
alarm_active?
alarm_off?
For integrations that support it, a group of default scope filters will be automatically created for assisting in finding objects that have the attribute set to one of a given set of states.
For example,
Vehicle.with_state(:parked) # => All vehicles where the state is parked Vehicle.with_states(:parked, :idling) # => All vehicles where the state is either parked or idling Vehicle.without_state(:parked) # => All vehicles where the state is *not* parked Vehicle.without_states(:parked, :idling) # => All vehicles where the state is *not* parked or idling
Note that if class methods already exist with those names (i.e. :with_state, :with_states, :without_state, or :without_states), then a scope will not be defined for that name.
See StateMachine::Machine for more information about using integrations and the individual integration docs for information about the actual scopes that are generated.
# File lib/state_machine/macro_methods.rb, line 489 def state_machine(*args, &block) StateMachine::Machine.find_or_create(self, *args, &block) end