# Contextual [](https://travis-ci.org/rzane/contextual)
`Contextual` provides a macro that will generate your Ecto [contexts](https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix/contexts.html) for you.
Imagine you have a schema called `MyApp.Posts.Post`. Typically, you'd create a context
to encapsulate `Ecto` access for creating, updating, and deleting posts.
You could use the built-in Phoenix generators to solve this problem, but then you're
left with a bunch of boilerplate code that distracts the reader from the
actual complexity in your contexts.
Instead, `use Contextual` and delete a bunch of boilerplate code. Or not, it's entirely your decision.
## Installation
The package can be installed by adding `contextual` to your list of dependencies in `mix.exs`:
```elixir
def deps do
[{:contextual, "~> 0.1.0"}]
end
```
Documentation can be found at [https://hexdocs.pm/contextual](https://hexdocs.pm/contextual).
## Creating your context
Here's how you'd define your context:
```elixir
defmodule MyApp.Posts do
use Contextual,
name: {:post, :posts},
schema: MyApp.Posts.Post,
repo: MyApp.Repo
end
```
`MyApp.Posts` now has the following functions:
* `list_posts`
* `get_post`
* `get_post!`
* `get_post_by`
* `get_post_by!`
* `fetch_post`
* `fetch_post_by`
* `create_post`
* `create_post!`
* `update_post`
* `update_post!`
* `delete_post`
* `delete_post!`
## Need to choose which functions are generated?
That seems reasonable. If you only wanted to define `get_post`, you can provide the `:only` option.
```elixir
defmodule MyApp.Posts do
use Contextual,
name: {:post, :posts},
schema: MyApp.Posts.Post,
repo: MyApp.Repo,
only: [:get]
end
```
Similarly, `Contextual` provides an `:except` option, which is basically just the opposite of `:only`.
## Don't like the default function names?
Okay, that's fine. You can create your own name generator to solve this problem.
First, create a module that will serve as a name generator:
```elixir
defmodule MyApp.ContextNaming do
def generate_name(:list, {_singular, plural}) do
:"all_#{plural}"
end
def generate_name(:get, {singular, _plural}) do
:"find_#{singular}"
end
def generate_name(_, _), do: :default
end
```
Next, you'll need to configure your context to use your name generator:
```elixir
defmodule MyApp.Posts do
use Contextual,
name: {:post, :posts},
schema: MyApp.Posts.Post,
repo: MyApp.Repo,
name_generator: {MyApp.ContextNaming, :generate_name}
end
```
Now, you'll have `all_posts` instead of `list_posts` and `find_post` instead of `get_post`.
## Contributing
The tests run against PostgreSQL. The `test` command will setup a test database for you.
To run the tests, just run:
$ mix test
