Acts as NullObject
================
Autor: Ladislav Martincik (ladislav.martincik@gmail.com)

= Description
Aim is to provide Null Object pattern for Rails models and relations (mainly belongs_to) on the fly.
Have a look at:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_object_pattern
- http://blog.craigambrose.com/past/2006/9/22/active-record-associations-and-the-null-object-pattern/
- http://www.answers.com/null+object+pattern?cat=technology&gwp=13


= Requirements:
 GEMs:
  - rspec - Testing framework
  - hpricot - HTTP/XML parser
  - sqlite3-ruby - Sqlite database connector for Ruby
  
= Installation
Copy acts_as_nullobject directory tree to your RAILS_ROOT/vendor/plugins.

= Provides methods
 - acts_as_nullobject(initial_data = {})
 - belongs_to_with_nullobject(association, options = {})

= Run tests
Just type inside plugin directory "rake".

= Basic usage

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  acts_as_nullobject :login => 'lacomartincik'
end

With this you can use method called "null_object" which will return NullUser object:

irb> User.null_object
=> NullUser

= Belongs to usage

class Role < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to_with_nullobject :user
end

irb> r = Role.new
irb> r.user # which is nil and we want to return NullRole object instead
=> NullRole

= Enabling/Disabling NullObject

For class:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  acts_as_nullobject :login => 'laco'
end

Disabling null object is:
User.disable_null_object

Enabling null object is:
User.enable_null_object

Here's example from RSpec test:
CompanyCar.disable_null_object
@company_car = CompanyCar.new(:name => 'Test1', :account_id => 1, :company => nil)
@company_car.company.should be_nil
CompanyCar.enable_null_object
@company_car = CompanyCar.new(:name => 'Test1', :account_id => 1, :company => nil)
@company_car.company.should be_instance_of(NullCompany)