Executing code for every method call in a Ruby module

Question

I'm writing a module in Ruby 1.9.2 that defines several methods. When any of these methods is called, I want each of them to execute a certain statement first.

module MyModule
  def go_forth
    a re-used statement
    # code particular to this method follows ...
  end

  def and_multiply
    a re-used statement
    # then something completely different ...
  end
end

But I want to avoid putting that a re-used statement code explicitly in every single method. Is there a way to do so?

(If it matters, a re-used statement will have each method, when called, print its own name. It will do so via some variant of puts __method__.)

Answer 1

Like this:

module M
  def self.before(*names)
    names.each do |name|
      m = instance_method(name)
      define_method(name) do |*args, &block|  
        yield
        m.bind(self).(*args, &block)
      end
    end
  end
end

module M
  def hello
    puts "yo"
  end

  def bye
    puts "bum"
  end

  before(*instance_methods) { puts "start" }
end

class C
  include M
end

C.new.bye #=> "start" "bum"
C.new.hello #=> "start" "yo"

Answer 2

This is exactly what aspector is created for.

With aspector you don't need to write the boilerplate metaprogramming code. You can even go one step further to extract the common logic into a separate aspect class and test it independently.

require 'aspector'

module MyModule
  aspector do
    before :go_forth, :add_multiply do
      ...
    end
  end

  def go_forth
    # code particular to this method follows ...
  end

  def and_multiply
    # then something completely different ...
  end
end

Answer 3

You can implement it with method_missing through proxy Module, like this:

module MyModule

  module MyRealModule
    def self.go_forth
      puts "it works!"
      # code particular to this method follows ...
    end

    def self.and_multiply
      puts "it works!"
      # then something completely different ...
    end
  end

  def self.method_missing(m, *args, &block)
    reused_statement
    if MyModule::MyRealModule.methods.include?( m.to_s )
      MyModule::MyRealModule.send(m)
    else
      super
    end
  end

  def self.reused_statement
    puts "reused statement"
  end
end

MyModule.go_forth
#=> it works!
MyModule.stop_forth
#=> NoMethodError...

Answer 4

You can do this by metaprogramming technique, here's an example:

module YourModule
  def included(mod)
    def mod.method_added(name)
      return if @added 
      @added = true
      original_method = "original #{name}"
      alias_method original_method, name
      define_method(name) do |*args|
        reused_statement
        result = send original_method, *args
        puts "The method #{name} called!"
        result
      end
      @added = false
    end
  end

  def reused_statement
  end
end

module MyModule
  include YourModule

  def go_forth
  end

  def and_multiply
  end
end

works only in ruby 1.9 and higher

UPDATE: and also can't use block, i.e. no yield in instance methods

Answer 5

I dunno, why I was downvoted - but a proper AOP framework is better than meta-programming hackery. And thats what OP was trying to achieve.

http://debasishg.blogspot.com/2006/06/does-ruby-need-aop.html

Another Solution could be:

module Aop
  def self.included(base)
    base.extend(ClassMethods)
  end

  module ClassMethods
    def before_filter(method_name, options = {})
      aop_methods = Array(options[:only]).compact
      return if aop_methods.empty?
      aop_methods.each do |m|
        alias_method "#{m}_old", m
        class_eval <<-RUBY,__FILE__,__LINE__ + 1
          def #{m}
            #{method_name}
            #{m}_old
          end
        RUBY
      end
    end
  end
end

module Bar
  def hello
    puts "Running hello world"
  end
end

class Foo
  include Bar
  def find_hello
    puts "Running find hello"
  end
  include Aop
  before_filter :find_hello, :only => :hello
end

a = Foo.new()
a.hello()

Answer 6

It is possible with meta-programming.

Another alternative is Aquarium. Aquarium is a framework that implements Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) for Ruby. AOP allow you to implement functionality across normal object and method boundaries. Your use case, applying a pre-action on every method, is a basic task of AOP.