Awesome Print

Awesome Print is Ruby library that pretty prints Ruby objects in full color exposing their internal structure with proper indentation. Rails ActiveRecord objects and usage within Rails templates are supported via included mixins.

Installation

# Installing as Ruby gem
$ gem install awesome_print

# Installing as Rails plugin
$ ruby script/plugin install http://github.com/michaeldv/awesome_print.git

# Cloning the repository
$ git clone git://github.com/michaeldv/awesome_print.git

Usage

require "ap"
ap object, options = {}

Default options:

:multiline => true,
:plain  => false,
:indent => 4,
:color => {
  :array      => :white,
  :bignum     => :blue,
  :class      => :yellow,
  :date       => :greenish,
  :falseclass => :red,
  :fixnum     => :blue,
  :float      => :blue,
  :hash       => :gray,
  :nilclass   => :red,
  :string     => :yellowish,
  :symbol     => :cyanish,
  :time       => :greenish,
  :trueclass  => :green
}

Supported color names:

:gray, :red, :green, :yellow, :blue, :purple, :cyan, :white
:black, :redish, :greenish, :yellowish, :blueish, :purpleish, :cyanish, :pale

Examples

$ cat > 1.rb
require "ap"
data = [ false, 42, %w(forty two), { :now => Time.now, :class => Time.now.class, :distance => 42e42 } ]
ap data
^D
$ ruby 1.rb
[
    [0] false,
    [1] 42,
    [2] [
        [0] "forty",
        [1] "two"
    ],
    [3] {
           :class => Time < Object,
             :now => Fri Apr 02 19:55:53 -0700 2010,
        :distance => 4.2e+43
    }
]

$ cat > 2.rb
require "ap"
data = { :now => Time.now, :class => Time.now.class, :distance => 42e42 }
ap data, :indent => -2  # <-- Left align hash keys.
^D
$ ruby 2.rb
{
  :class    => Time < Object,
  :now      => Fri Apr 02 19:55:53 -0700 2010,
  :distance => 4.2e+43
}

$ cat > 3.rb
require "ap"
data = [ false, 42, %w(forty two) ]
data << data  # <-- Nested array.
ap data, :multiline => false
^D
$ ruby 3.rb
[ false, 42, [ "forty", "two" ], [...] ]

Example (Rails console)

$ ruby script/console
Loading development environment (Rails 2.3.5)
rails> require "ap"
rails> ap Account.all(:limit => 2)
[
    [0] #<Account:0x1033220b8> {
                     :id => 1,
                :user_id => 5,
            :assigned_to => 7,
                   :name => "Hayes-DuBuque",
                 :access => "Public",
                :website => "http://www.hayesdubuque.com",
        :toll_free_phone => "1-800-932-6571",
                  :phone => "(111)549-5002",
                    :fax => "(349)415-2266",
             :deleted_at => nil,
             :created_at => Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:46:10 UTC +00:00,
             :updated_at => Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:33:10 UTC +00:00,
                  :email => "[email protected]",
        :background_info => nil
    },
    [1] #<Account:0x103321ff0> {
                     :id => 2,
                :user_id => 4,
            :assigned_to => 4,
                   :name => "Ziemann-Streich",
                 :access => "Public",
                :website => "http://www.ziemannstreich.com",
        :toll_free_phone => "1-800-871-0619",
                  :phone => "(042)056-1534",
                    :fax => "(106)017-8792",
             :deleted_at => nil,
             :created_at => Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:32:10 UTC +00:00,
             :updated_at => Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:05:01 UTC +00:00,
                  :email => "[email protected]",
        :background_info => nil
    }
]
rails> ap Account
class Account < ActiveRecord::Base {
                 :id => :integer,
            :user_id => :integer,
        :assigned_to => :integer,
               :name => :string,
             :access => :string,
            :website => :string,
    :toll_free_phone => :string,
              :phone => :string,
                :fax => :string,
         :deleted_at => :datetime,
         :created_at => :datetime,
         :updated_at => :datetime,
              :email => :string,
    :background_info => :string
}
rails>

IRB integration

To use awesome_print as default formatter in irb and Rails console add the following lines into your ~/.irbrc file:

require "rubygems"
require "ap"
IRB::Irb.class_eval do
  def output_value
    ap @context.last_value
  end
end

Logger Convenience Method

awesome_print adds an ap method to the Logger and ActiveSupport::BufferedLogger classes, allowing you to call:

logger.ap object

By default, this logs at the :debug level. You can override that globally with

:log_level => :info

in the custom defaults (see below), or you can override on a per call basis with

logger.ap object, :warn

ActionView Convenience Method

awesome_print adds an ap method to the ActionView::Base class making it available within Rails templates. For example:

<%= ap @accounts.first %>

Setting Custom Defaults

You can set your own default options by creating .aprc file in your home directory. Within that file assign your defaults to AwesomePrint.defaults. For example:

# ~/.aprc file.
AwesomePrint.defaults = {
  :indent => -2,
  :color => {
    :hash  => :pale,
    :class => :white
  }
}

Note on Patches/Pull Requests

• Fork the project on Github.
• Make your feature addition or bug fix.
• Add specs for it, making sure $ rake spec is all green.
• Commit, do not mess with rakefile, version, or history.
• Send me a pull request.

Contributors

• Daniel Bretoi -- http://github.com/danielb2
• eregon -- http://github.com/eregon
• Tobias Crawley -- http://github.com/tobias

License

Copyright (c) 2010 Michael Dvorkin
%w(mike dvorkin.net) * "@" || %w(mike fatfreecrm.com) * "@"

Released under the MIT license. See LICENSE file for details.