MongoMapper and custom type properties

Question

I am trying to create a MongoMapper model which has an array of attributes. This array should contain all kind of information (Integers, Floats, URLs, Enums, Dates, Relations to other documents) depending on the user`s desire.

My problem is how implement the array of attributes, how to implement the custom data type of the attributes. I suppose that the document serialized should look similar to this:

{
  ...
  attributes: {
    age: {
      name: "Age",
      type: "Integer",
      value: 12
    },
    height: {
      name: "Height",
      type: "Float",
      value: 1.86
    },
    mother: {
      name: "Mother",
      type: "Relation\Person",
      value: "\people\sara"
    }
  }
}

Any ideas how to approach this problem? My first tought was to create a base class like a factory which has to serialize and deserialize the attributes, but from what I have managed to code, nothing was working properly.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You could make a custom type, but if you have an array, why not just use an embedded object?

See this: http://speakerdeck.com/u/jnunemaker/p/mongomapper-mapping-ruby-to-and-from-mongo

Slides 47-49.