Create writer methods for active model human attribute names. Useful when importing from spreadsheets.

human_attribute_name_writers.rb

module Importing
  module HumanAttributeNameWriters

    def self.included(base)
      base.new # Force activerecord to initialize attributes

      # only allow accessible attributes that are not foreign keys or nested attributes
      foreign_keys = Agent.reflect_on_all_associations.map(&:association_foreign_key)
      allowed_attributes = base.accessible_attributes.select do |name|
        name.present? && !foreign_keys.include?(name) && !name.match(/_attributes$/)
      end

      # alias each allowed attr writer with a human name version and make accessible
      allowed_attributes.each do |name|
        base.class_eval {
          alias_method "#{base.human_attribute_name(name)}=", "#{name}="
          attr_accessible "#{base.human_attribute_name(name)}"
        }
      end
    end

  end
end

human_attribute_name_writers_spec.rb

require 'fast_spec_helper'
require 'active_record'
require 'nulldb/core'
require 'importing/human_attribute_name_writers'
require 'active_support/core_ext/string/inflections'

describe "Importing::HumanAttributeNameWriters" do

  before(:all) do
    if ActiveRecord::Base.connected?
      @connection_config_before = ActiveRecord::Base.connection_config
    end
    ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection :adapter => :nulldb
  end

  after(:all) do
    if @connection_config_before
      ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection(@connection_config_before)
    end
  end

  class AModel < ActiveRecord::Base
  end

  describe AModel do

    context "with an attribute" do

      before(:all) do
        ActiveRecord::Base.connection.create_table "a_models" do |t|
          t.string :an_attribute
        end
      end

      context "when not marked as accessible" do
        context "including HumanAttributeNameWriters" do
          before(:all) do
            AModel.class_eval{ include Importing::HumanAttributeNameWriters }
          end
          it "should not create a human attribute name writer" do
            AModel.new.should_not respond_to("An attribute=")
          end
        end
      end

      context "when marked as accessible" do
        before(:all) do
          AModel.class_eval { attr_accessible :an_attribute }
        end

        context "including HumanAttributeNameWriters" do
          before(:all) do
            AModel.class_eval{ include Importing::HumanAttributeNameWriters }
          end

          it "should create a human attribute name writer" do
            AModel.new.should respond_to("An attribute=")
          end

          context "and the human attribute name writer" do
            it "should set the value of the real attribute" do
              subject.send("An attribute=", "foo")
              subject.an_attribute.should == "foo"
            end
          end
        end
      end

    end

  end

end