Add ActiveRecord::Base.suppress

activerecord/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,3 +1,32 @@
+*   Add ActiveRecord::Base.suppress to prevent the receiver from being saved
+    during the given block.
+
+    For example, here's a pattern of creating notifications when new comments
+    are posted. (The notification may in turn trigger an email, a push
+    notification, or just appear in the UI somewhere):
+
+    class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base
+      belongs_to :commentable, polymorphic: true
+      after_create -> { Notification.create! comment: self,
+        recipients: commentable.recipients }
+    end
+
+    That's what you want the bulk of the time. New comment creates a new
+    Notification. But there may well be off cases, like copying a commentable
+    and its comments, where you don't want that. So you'd have a concern
+    something like this:
+
+    module Copyable
+      def copy_to(destination)
+        Notification.suppress do
+          # Copy logic that creates new comments that we do not want triggering
+          # notifications.
+        end
+      end
+    end
+
+    *Michael Ryan*
+
 *   `:time` option added for `#touch`
     Fixes #18905.
 

activerecord/lib/active_record.rb

@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ module ActiveRecord
   autoload :Serialization
   autoload :StatementCache
   autoload :Store
+  autoload :Suppressor
   autoload :TableMetadata
   autoload :Timestamp
   autoload :Transactions

activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb

@@ -313,6 +313,7 @@ class Base
     include Serialization
     include Store
     include SecureToken
+    include Suppressor
   end
 
   ActiveSupport.run_load_hooks(:active_record, Base)

activerecord/lib/active_record/suppressor.rb

@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+module ActiveRecord
+  # ActiveRecord::Suppressor prevents the receiver from being saved during
+  # a given block.
+  #
+  # For example, here's a pattern of creating notifications when new comments
+  # are posted. (The notification may in turn trigger an email, a push
+  # notification, or just appear in the UI somewhere):
+  # 
+  # class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base
+  #   belongs_to :commentable, polymorphic: true
+  #   after_create -> { Notification.create! comment: self,
+  #     recipients: commentable.recipients }
+  # end
+  # 
+  # That's what you want the bulk of the time. New comment creates a new
+  # Notification. But there may well be off cases, like copying a commentable
+  # and its comments, where you don't want that. So you'd have a concern
+  # something like this:
+  # 
+  # module Copyable
+  #   def copy_to(destination)
+  #     Notification.suppress do
+  #       # Copy logic that creates new comments that we do not want
+  #       # triggering notifications.
+  #     end
+  #   end
+  # end
+  module Suppressor
+    extend ActiveSupport::Concern
+
+    module ClassMethods
+      def suppress(&block)
+        SuppressorRegistry.suppressed[name] = true
+        yield
+      ensure
+        SuppressorRegistry.suppressed[name] = false
+      end
+    end
+
+    # Ignore saving events if we're in suppression mode.
+    def save!(*args)
+      SuppressorRegistry.suppressed[self.class.name] ? self : super
+    end
+  end
+
+  class SuppressorRegistry # :nodoc:
+    extend ActiveSupport::PerThreadRegistry
+
+    attr_reader :suppressed
+
+    def initialize
+      @suppressed = {}
+    end
+  end
+end

activerecord/test/cases/suppressor_test.rb

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+require 'cases/helper'
+require 'models/notification'
+require 'models/user'
+
+class SuppressorTest < ActiveRecord::TestCase
+
+  def test_suppresses_creation_of_record_generated_by_callback
+    assert_difference -> { User.count } do
+      assert_no_difference -> { Notification.count } do
+        Notification.suppress { UserWithNotification.create! }
+      end
+    end
+  end
+
+  def test_resumes_saving_after_suppression_complete
+    Notification.suppress { UserWithNotification.create! }
+
+    assert_difference -> { Notification.count } do
+      Notification.create!
+    end
+  end
+end

activerecord/test/models/notification.rb

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+class Notification < ActiveRecord::Base
+end

activerecord/test/models/user.rb

@@ -2,3 +2,7 @@ class User < ActiveRecord::Base
   has_secure_token
   has_secure_token :auth_token
 end
+
+class UserWithNotification < User
+  after_create -> { Notification.create! message: "A new user has been created." }
+end

activerecord/test/schema/schema.rb

@@ -468,6 +468,10 @@ def except(adapter_names_to_exclude)
     t.string      :name
   end
 
+  create_table :notifications, force: true do |t|
+    t.string :message
+  end
+
   create_table :numeric_data, force: true do |t|
     t.decimal :bank_balance, precision: 10, scale: 2
     t.decimal :big_bank_balance, precision: 15, scale: 2