# \[ANN\] ColumnComments Plugin **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [April 27, 2006, 9:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-columncomments-plugin/59010 "2006-04-27T21:43:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Duane\_J](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e19adc/32.png) [@Duane\_J](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Duane_J)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 9:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-columncomments-plugin/59010/1 "2006-04-27T21:43:06Z")
Hereâ??s a small plugin that may be useful for documenting your database. Based on Dave T.â??s AnnotateModels plugin, this plugin goes one step further and allows you to store comments on each column in the database (MySQL only). Full write-up at: [http://blog.inquirylabs.com/2006/04/27/](http://blog.inquirylabs.com/2006/04/27/) columncomments-rails-plugin Subversion at: svn://syncid.textdriven.com/svn/opensource/ column\_comments/trunk Duane J. (canadaduane) [http://blog.inquirylabs.com/](http://blog.inquirylabs.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Duane\_J](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e19adc/32.png) [@Duane\_J](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Duane_J)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 10:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-columncomments-plugin/59010/2 "2006-04-27T22:03:37Z")
Great Stuff Duane. This and the recent MARC(?) textmate plugin are much appreciated. Question: What would it take to have annotations with the Model? I have an client that utilizes Model attributes as fields in a mail merge. The annotations would be great for me within the Model for end user documentation. Cheers, (Canada)Jodi ---
**Author:** ![Duane\_J](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e19adc/32.png) [@Duane\_J](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Duane_J)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 12:24am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-columncomments-plugin/59010/3 "2006-04-28T00:24:50Z")
On Apr 27, 2006, at 1:59 PM, Jodi S. wrote: > Great Stuff Duane. This and the recent MARC(?) textmate plugin are > much appreciated. Thanks, Jodi. Glad you like them. (I’m rather fond of the MASC feature right now. Discovering new uses for it all the time.) > Question: What would it take to have annotations with the Model? > > I have an client that utilizes Model attributes as fields in a mail > merge. The annotations would be great for me within the Model for > end user documentation. I’m not quite sure I understand your question. Currently, the annotations go right in to the comment section of the model. The “rake doc:reapp” task can then be called to automatically create documentation from that comment section (assuming there are no other comment blocks between the auto-generated block and the class itself). Is this what you’re after? Duane > Cheers, > (Canada)Jodi Haha! Good to have you on board 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Duane\_J](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e19adc/32.png) [@Duane\_J](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Duane_J)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 3:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-columncomments-plugin/59010/4 "2006-04-28T15:53:08Z")
On 27-Apr-06, at 6:22 PM, Duane J. wrote: > I’m not quite sure I understand your question. Currently, the > annotations go right in to the comment section of the model. The > “rake doc:reapp” task can then be called to automatically create > documentation from that comment section (assuming there are no > other comment blocks between the auto-generated block and the class > itself). Is this what you’re after? > > Duane Thanx Duane - (just waking up, rubbing sleep out of my eyes, and trying to summarize) I have some ‘decorator’ methods that pretty up the output from the database (think phone numbers, postal codes, etc). Some times these methods bring together data from multiple fields to build a visually pleasing output such as name (honoration + firstname + initial + lastname). These fields are only present in the Model. As the ColumnComments plugin works on the database column (as it should!), I guess you’re saying I should just add comments to the ruby source code that rdoc picks up? I’d like to provide my users with a way to query the database column - public model attributes, and CRUD the comments. I can think of ways to do this with a data dictionary in the database, but your announcement got me thinking their might be a better way. Is that clear? (hoping I’m awake enough by now) Cheers, Jodi ---
**Author:** ![Duane\_J](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e19adc/32.png) [@Duane\_J](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Duane_J)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-columncomments-plugin/59010/5 "2006-04-28T16:02:10Z")
## Posted at [http://agilewebdevelopment.com/plugins/show/105](http://agilewebdevelopment.com/plugins/show/105). 🙂 Benjamin C. [http://www.tesly.com/](http://www.tesly.com/) – Collaborative test case management [http://www.agilewebdevelopment.com/](http://www.agilewebdevelopment.com/) – Resources for the Rails community ---
**Author:** ![Duane\_J](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e19adc/32.png) [@Duane\_J](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Duane_J)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-columncomments-plugin/59010/6 "2006-04-28T16:17:28Z")
On Apr 28, 2006, at 7:52 AM, Jodi S. wrote: > > Duane > > As the ColumnComments plugin works on the database column (as it > > should!), I guess you’re saying I should just add comments to the > > ruby source code that rdoc picks up? Yes, you would have to add comments inline with your code in this case. There’s no facility (that I know of) for “pseudo-columns” in the MySQL database that would provide a place to document columns that don’t really exist in the DB. > I’d like to provide my users with a way to query the database > column + public model attributes, and CRUD the comments. I can > think of ways to do this with a data dictionary in the database, > but your announcement got me thinking their might be a better way. That sounds pretty cool. As for implementation, I would think you’d have to do a little of both–update the comments on the real database fields, and update the ruby comments in your model code–to get what you’re after. It might be easier in the end to create a “comments” table for this to normalize how you do commenting in your system. Unless DRY is important to you, in which case you may want to re-use all the inline ruby comments. Good luck! Duane J. (canadaduane) [http://blog.inquirylabs.com/](http://blog.inquirylabs.com/)