HowTo: Render Non Occams Models as Pages

Sometimes you want to render your regular app objects like a Occams::Cms::Page. Enter the Occams::Cms::WithFragments concern. (Note: This used to be called cms_manageable, but with the release of comfy 2.0, has been converted into a concern.)

An example from the previous implementation of this feature as cms_manageable:

class BoringModel < ActiveRecord::Base

  validates :is_awesome, presence: true

  cms_manageable

  # Your job to figure out a nice way to handle this...
  def layout
    Cms::Layout.new(content: "<p>{{ cms:page:random_content }}</p>")
  end

end

# Let's assume we have an instance of our BoringModel
boring_model = BoringModel.first
# Set some blocks that match the layout we defined in the class...
boring_model.blocks_attributes = [{ :identifier => 'random_content', :content => 'not so boring anymore ;-)' }]

boring_model.render
#=> "<p>not so boring anymore ;-)</p>"

Here are the steps to take:

1. Add include Occams::Cms::WithFragments in your model.
2. Add a content_cache column to your objects table.
3. Associate your object with a occams layout. Occams::Cms::WithFragments adds

belongs_to :layout, class_name: "Occams::Cms::Layout"

4. Associate your object to occams fragments which store the content that will be rendered. Occams::Cms::WithFragments adds

has_many :fragments,
    class_name: "Occams::Cms::Fragment",
    as:         :record,
    autosave:   true,
    dependent: :destroy

5. Profit!

For further information, see the Occams::Cms::WithFragment module, which is also used by Occams::Cms::Page to handle the relationship between comfy pages and fragments. Dogfooding for the win! Remember, 'blocks' are now called fragments.

Links

• The Occams::Cms::WithFragment concern - https://github.com/avonderluft/occams/blob/main/app/models/concerns/occams/cms/with_fragments.rb