Draper Decorators

Draper Decorators for Rails

This skill provides guidance for creating effective Draper decorators in Rails applications.

Philosophy

Decorators implement separation of concerns between business logic (models) and presentation logic (views). A decorator wraps a model to add view-specific methods without polluting the model.

What belongs in decorators:

• Date/​time formatting (created_at.strftime("%B %d, %Y"))
• String concatenation ("#{first_name} #{last_name}")
• HTML generation (h.content_tag(:span, status, class: css_class))
• Conditional rendering based on state
• Number formatting (currency, percentages)
• CSS class generation based on object state

What does NOT belong in decorators:

• Business logic (validations, calculations, state changes)
• Database queries (use includes in controllers)
• Anything not directly related to presentation

Basic Structure

# app/​decorators/​user_decorator.rb
class UserDecorator < ApplicationDecorator
  delegate_all

  def full_name
    "#{first_name} #{last_name}"
  end

  def formatted_created_at
    created_at.strftime("%B %d, %Y")
  end

  def status_badge
    css_class = active? ? "badge-success" : "badge-secondary"
    h.content_tag(:span, status, class: "badge #{css_class}")
  end
end

Delegation Strategies

Option 1: delegate_all (Convenient)

Delegates all methods to the wrapped object via method_missing. Use for most decorators.

class ProductDecorator < ApplicationDecorator
  delegate_all

  def formatted_price
    h.number_to_currency(price)
  end
end

Option 2: Explicit Delegation (Strict)

Explicitly declare which methods to delegate. Use for larger apps where control matters.

class ProductDecorator < ApplicationDecorator
  delegate :id, :name, :price, :created_at, :persisted?

  def formatted_price
    h.number_to_currency(price)
  end
end

Accessing the Wrapped Object

Three equivalent ways to access the model:

class ArticleDecorator < ApplicationDecorator
  delegate_all

  def display_title
    object.title.upcase      # via 'object'
    model.title.upcase       # via 'model' (alias)
    article.title.upcase     # via model name (auto-generated)
  end
end

Accessing Rails Helpers

Use h or helpers to access view helpers:

class PostDecorator < ApplicationDecorator
  delegate_all

  def formatted_body
    h.simple_format(body)
  end

  def edit_link
    h.link_to("Edit", h.edit_post_path(object), class: "btn")
  end

  def publication_date
    h.l(published_at, format: :long)  # l is localize alias
  end
end

Decorating in Controllers

Decorate at the last moment, right before rendering:

class PostsController < ApplicationController
  def show
    @post = Post.find(params[:id]).decorate
  end

  def index
    @posts = Post.includes(:author).all.decorate
  end
end

Critical: Always use includes BEFORE decorating to avoid N+1 queries.

Association Decoration

Use decorates_association to auto-decorate associations:

class PostDecorator < ApplicationDecorator
  delegate_all
  decorates_association :author
  decorates_association :comments
  decorates_association :recent_comments, scope: :recent
end

In views, @post.author returns AuthorDecorator, not Author.

Context Passing

Pass extra data to decorators via context:

# Controller
@product = Product.find(params[:id]).decorate(context: { current_user: })

# Decorator
class ProductDecorator < ApplicationDecorator
  delegate_all

  def admin_price_info
    return unless context[:current_user]&.admin?
    "Cost: #{h.number_to_currency(cost)} | Margin: #{margin}%"
  end
end

Collection Decoration

# Auto-infers decorator from model
@products = Product.all.decorate

# Explicit decorator
@products = ProductDecorator.decorate_collection(Product.all)

# With pagination (use custom collection decorator)
class PaginatingDecorator < Draper::CollectionDecorator
  delegate :current_page, :total_pages, :limit_value
end

class ProductDecorator < ApplicationDecorator
  def self.collection_decorator_class
    PaginatingDecorator
  end
end

Testing Decorators

Place specs in spec/​decorators/. Draper auto-configures RSpec integration.

Basic Pattern

# spec/​decorators/​user_decorator_spec.rb
require 'rails_helper'

RSpec.describe UserDecorator do
  subject(:decorator) { described_class.new(user) }

  let(:user) { build_stubbed(:user, first_name: "John", last_name: "Doe") }

  describe "#full_name" do
    subject(:full_name) { decorator.full_name }

    it "combines first and last name" do
      expect(full_name).to eq("John Doe")
    end
  end

  describe "#formatted_created_at" do
    subject(:formatted_date) { decorator.formatted_created_at }

    let(:user) { build_stubbed(:user, created_at: Time.zone.parse("2024-01-15")) }

    it "formats date in long format" do
      expect(formatted_date).to eq("January 15, 2024")
    end
  end
end

Testing with Helpers

Access helpers via helpers method in tests:

RSpec.describe PostDecorator do
  subject(:decorator) { described_class.new(post) }

  let(:post) { create(:post) }

  it "generates correct path" do
    expect(decorator.edit_link).to include(helpers.edit_post_path(post))
  end
end

Testing HTML Output with Capybara

RSpec.describe StatusDecorator do
  subject(:decorator) { described_class.new(order) }

  describe "#status_badge" do
    subject(:badge) { decorator.status_badge }

    context "when completed" do
      let(:order) { build_stubbed(:order, :completed) }

      it "renders success badge" do
        markup = Capybara.string(badge)
        expect(markup).to have_css("span.badge-success", text: "Completed")
      end
    end
  end
end

Common Anti-Patterns

Fat Decorator

Split large decorators into context-specific ones:

# Instead of one 500-line UserDecorator, use:
class Users::ProfileDecorator < ApplicationDecorator
  # Profile-related presentation
end

class Users::AdminDecorator < ApplicationDecorator
  # Admin panel presentation
end

N+1 Queries

# BAD - triggers N+1
@posts = Post.all.decorate
# In decorator: author.name triggers query per post

# GOOD - eager load first
@posts = Post.includes(:author).all.decorate

Decorating Too Early

# BAD - decorated objects in business logic
def publish(decorated_post)
  decorated_post.update(published: true)
end

# GOOD - use models for business logic
def publish(post)
  post.update(published: true)
end
# Decorate only in controller before render

Using Decorators in Models

# BAD - model references decorator
class Post < ApplicationRecord
  def display_title
    PostDecorator.new(self).formatted_title
  end
end

# GOOD - keep models unaware of decorators

Quick Reference

Additional Resources

Reference Files

For detailed patterns and examples:

• references/​patterns.md - Advanced patterns, association decoration, context handling
• references/​testing.md - Comprehensive RSpec testing guide
• references/​anti-patterns.md - Detailed anti-patterns with solutions

Example Files

Working examples in examples/:

• examples/​application_decorator.rb - Base decorator template
• examples/​model_decorator.rb - Full decorator example
• examples/​decorator_spec.rb - Complete spec template