Customize Solidus library code - Address with optional phone number

Question

I am trying to override Solidus code and wanted to know what my options were?

In particular I am trying to change the Address to make the phone optional.

Answer 1

Solidus aims to provide a better customization interface - they want to avoid you opening up the Solidus/Spree classes - because it increases the chances that you break the system.

The original answer was broken for Rails 6.0 (Zeitwerk changes). For Rails 6 there is untested example code taken from a github issue.

# app/decorators/your_app/spree/address/make_phone_optional_decorator.rb
module YourApp::Spree::Address::MakePhoneOptionalDecorator
  def require_phone?
    false
  end

  Spree::Address.prepend self
end

Be sure to name the files *_decorator.rb, like this they will automatically been picked up by solidus.

---

Original answer:

Alternatives listed from most to least preferred

1. To this end they provide extension points
   • which do not cover Addresses.
2. Decorators
   • which doesn't help us because the address acts within Solidus library and not code called within our application
3. Module#prepend
   • Create a file under app/models/spree and prepending additional spree namespaces if required
   • Add the prepend into config/initializers/spree.rb
   • Prepend is an improvement on class_eval as you can call the non-overridden version of a method call with super.

In the actual problem - there is no extension for a Spree Address, a decorator won't work because we are not calling the code (say in a view we have written), so we need to change the Spree code with prepend.

app/models/spree/optional_phone_address.rb

module Spree
  module OptionalPhoneAddress
    # require_phone?
    #   - no longer require a phone
    #   - a * no longer appears next to phone in the view
    #
    def require_phone?
      false
    end
  end
end

config/initializers/spree.rb

#
# Customization of Spree Code
#

Spree::Address.prepend Spree::OptionalPhoneAddress

Note

• there is a comment about removing the method call from the API
• You have changed the behaviour of Solidus which should be tested
• Spree's google group suggested the way of fixing this by opening the class with class_eval - I do not know if that is current practice with the new maintainers.

Further Study

• class_eval and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day
• Jordan Brough - Customizing Solidus at the Model and Controller Levels
• Why Solidus?