How to use concerns in Rails 4

Question

The default Rails 4 project generator now creates the directory \"concerns\" under controllers and models. I have found some explanations about how to use routing concerns,

Answer 1

I felt most of the examples here demonstrated the power of module rather than how ActiveSupport::Concern adds value to module.

Example 1: More readable modules.

So without concerns this how a typical module will be.

module M
  def self.included(base)
    base.extend ClassMethods
    base.class_eval do
      scope :disabled, -> { where(disabled: true) }
    end
  end

  def instance_method
    ...
  end

  module ClassMethods
    ...
  end
end

After refactoring with ActiveSupport::Concern.

require 'active_support/concern'

module M
  extend ActiveSupport::Concern

  included do
    scope :disabled, -> { where(disabled: true) }
  end

  class_methods do
    ...
  end

  def instance_method
    ...
  end
end

You see instance methods, class methods and included block are less messy. Concerns will inject them appropriately for you. That's one advantage of using ActiveSupport::Concern.

---

Example 2: Handle module dependencies gracefully.

module Foo
  def self.included(base)
    base.class_eval do
      def self.method_injected_by_foo_to_host_klass
        ...
      end
    end
  end
end

module Bar
  def self.included(base)
    base.method_injected_by_foo_to_host_klass
  end
end

class Host
  include Foo # We need to include this dependency for Bar
  include Bar # Bar is the module that Host really needs
end

In this example Bar is the module that Host really needs. But since Bar has dependency with Foo the Host class have to include Foo (but wait why does Host want to know about Foo? Can it be avoided?).

So Bar adds dependency everywhere it goes. And order of inclusion also matters here. This adds lot of complexity/dependency to huge code base.

After refactoring with ActiveSupport::Concern

require 'active_support/concern'

module Foo
  extend ActiveSupport::Concern
  included do
    def self.method_injected_by_foo_to_host_klass
      ...
    end
  end
end

module Bar
  extend ActiveSupport::Concern
  include Foo

  included do
    self.method_injected_by_foo_to_host_klass
  end
end

class Host
  include Bar # It works, now Bar takes care of its dependencies
end

Now it looks simple.

If you are thinking why can't we add Foo dependency in Bar module itself? That won't work since method_injected_by_foo_to_host_klass have to be injected in a class that's including Bar not on Bar module itself.

Source: Rails ActiveSupport::Concern