root/vendor/plugins/file_column/README @ 5

FEATURES
========

Let's assume an model class named Entry, where we want to define the "image" column
as a "file_upload" column.

class Entry < ActiveRecord::Base
  file_column :image
end

* every entry can have one uploaded file, the filename will be stored in the "image" column

* files will be stored in "public/entry/image/<entry.id>/filename.ext"

* Newly uploaded files will be stored in "public/entry/tmp/<random>/filename.ext" so that
  they can be reused in form redisplays (due to validation etc.)

* in a view, "<%= file_column_field 'entry', 'image' %> will create a file upload field as well
  as a hidden field to recover files uploaded before in a case of a form redisplay

* in a view, "<%= url_for_file_column 'entry', 'image' %> will create an URL to access the
  uploaded file. Note that you need an Entry object in the instance variable @entry for this
  to work.

* easy integration with RMagick to resize images and/or create thumb-nails.

USAGE
=====

Just drop the whole directory into your application's "vendor/plugins" directory. Starting
with version 1.0rc of rails, it will be automatically picked for you by rails plugin
mechanism.

DOCUMENTATION
=============

Please look at the rdoc-generated documentation in the "doc" directory.

RUNNING UNITTESTS
=================

There are extensive unittests in the "test" directory. Currently, only MySQL is supported, but
you should be able to easily fix this by looking at "connection.rb". You have to create a
database for the tests and put the connection information into "connection.rb". The schema
for MySQL can be found in "test/fixtures/mysql.sql".

You can run the tests by starting the "*_test.rb" in the directory "test"

BUGS & FEEDBACK
===============

Bug reports (as well as patches) and feedback are very welcome. Please send it to
sebastian.kanthak@muehlheim.de