Updates to active_support_hacks

I've made a couple of updates to my active_support_hacks

First: DateRange#include?(other)

This accepts a Date, Time or another TimeRange. It assumes inclusive range ends

4.days.ago.until(1.day.ago).include?(2.days.ago)                    #  => true
4.days.ago.until(1.day.ago).include?(3.days.ago.until(2.days.ago)   #  => true
5.hours.from_now.until(10.hours.from_now).include?(6.days.from_now) #  => false

Second: Pretty Date Formatters

These generate human-readable times and dates, like "9 hours from now" and "earlier this week"

f = ActiveSupport::CoreExtensions::Time::PrettyNumericDateFormatter.new
f.call(5.hours.ago)       # => "5 hours ago"
f.call(37.days.ago)       # => "1 month ago"

f = ActiveSupport::CoreExtensions::Time::PrettySimpleDateFormatter.new
f.call(5.hours.ago)       # => "earlier today"
f.call(55.days.from_now)  # => "later this year"

You can load these into the ActiveSupport formatting code like so:

require 'active_support/core_ext/time/pretty_numeric_date_formatter'
require 'active_support/core_ext/time/pretty_simple_date_formatter'

#each formatter must either respond to #call(Date) and #call(Time) or be a String for strftime

formatters = {
  :pretty_numeric => ActiveSupport::CoreExtensions::Time::PrettyNumericDateFormatter.new,
  :pretty_simple => ActiveSupport::CoreExtensions::Time::PrettySimpleDateFormatter.new
}
formatters[:pretty] = formatters[:pretty_numeric]
formatters[:default] = formatters[:pretty]

ActiveSupport::CoreExtensions::Time::Conversions::DATE_FORMATS.merge!(formatters)
ActiveSupport::CoreExtensions::Date::Conversions::DATE_FORMATS.merge!(formatters)

I have that in my Rails app in /config/initializers/date_formats.rb. If you don't want to override the default formatting of dates, don't include the formatters[:default] = formatters[:pretty] line. By including a [:default] in the hash, all ActionViews will automatically use this formatter.

ActiveSupport additions: TimeRange and Distance

I've created some utility classes that I use in many of my projects. I've broken them out into a Rails plugin, but they should really be part of ActiveSupport.

First: TimeRange

t = 5.minutes.ago.until(1.second.ago)
s = 10.minutes.ago.until(3.minutes.ago)
overlap = t & s
overlap.start_time # => 5.minutes.ago
overlap.end_time   # => 3.minutes.ago

Second: Distance

4.miles + 6.miles  # => 10.miles
5.yards.to_feet    # => 15.feet
12.miles.in_km     # => 19.312128.km
12.miles.as_km     # => 19.312128.km
2.meters > 2.yards # => true

Eventually, I plan on moving some of GeoKit into some sort of ActiveRecord::DistanceSupport in the plugin.

If you want the plugin, you can get it at https://svn.u-presence.com/svn/plugins/active_support_hacks/ (Username guest, no password). I'd love any other suggestions or comments on the utilities.