Aynchronous
============

Now you can make any method in one of your models asynchronous.  For example, 


class TestRecord < ActiveRecord::Base
  
  after_save :an_alert
  
  def an_alert
    logger.info "We could now asynchronously send an email to tons of people with this alert."
  end
  asynchronous :an_alert
end

That's it, just install the plugin, add a "QueuedMethods" table (follow my migration script), and add the "asynchronous :symbol" part below where you declare the method you are making asynchronous.  I've included a migration script in the db folder to use for the QueuedMethods table. 

To process your queue just set up a cron job using the script runner:

"script/runner 'MethodQueue.process' -e production"


This is still in its first draft, but working under the conditions shown in the tests.  Please feel free though to hack at it an make it better.  I think it's a pretty useful tool.  But a couple things I don't like: 

1) What's the standard way these days to create a table a plugin depends on?  Probably not in the install.rb in case there is a name conflict? 

2) The "asynchronous" part has to be declared below the method declaration.  Is there anyway to make it agnostic of the method declaration location?


Testing
==========

If you want to test, you need to have a test table for the test model setup in the database.  I included a mysql.sql file to create that table in the test/fixtures dir.  Then you can just run "rake", in your RAILS_PROJ/vendor/plugins/asynchronous.


Major Thanks
============

Chris Eppstein provided a great patch that got rid of race condition the original plugin had.  This makes it truly useful for most jobs people need something like this for.  Thanks man!



-----------------------------------------------

-Nate
http://www.inklingmarkets.com