Rails where to put a method to use in all models

Question

Where should I put a method in Rails that will be used by all of my models?

Answer 1

You can write reusable methods in a module and include in necessary models.

create a file in lib/reusable.rb

module Reusable
   def reusable_method_1
     puts "reusable"
   end

   def reusable_method_2
     puts "reusable"
   end
end

Lets say if you want to use this in user model

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  include Reusable
end

And also ensure that the autoload_path enabled for lib/ directory in application.rb

# Custom directories with classes and modules you want to be autoloadable.
config.autoload_paths += %W(#{config.root}/lib)

Answer 2

Active record extensions while server starts

# config/initializers/core_extensions.rb
class ActiveRecord::Base
  # write ur common base code here
  def self.per_page
    @@per_page ||= 10
  end

  def self.pagination(options)
    paginate :per_page => options[:per_page] || per_page, :page => options[:page]
  end
end

Answer 3

There are multiple ways in which you could do achieve this

1. Use OOP and and create a sub class for ActiveRecord::Base in your project and use that class as a parent for all your models
2. Monkey path ActiveRecord::Base
3. Create a module and include that in all your models

Answer 4

You'll want to do some research on a Rails convention called "Concerns". Here's the lowdown: Create sub-directory called concerns in your app directory. Create your module in app/concerns and include the module in all of your models. Add the path to app/concerns to your config.autoload_path in config/application.rb.

Before you do any of that, I'm curious as to what sort of method would need to be included in ALL models? How many models are we talking and what problem are you trying to solve?