ruby script/plugin install svn://syncid.textdriven.com/svn/opensource/column_comments/trunk

Enter ColumnComments
====================

The ColumnComments plugin makes the necessary modifications to ActiveRecord to allow for an optional :comment in your table migrations. In addition, it includes the same feature provided by the AnnotateModels plugin (rake annotate_models), but also includes the database-stored comments in the auto-generated header.

Here’s an example of the output:

# Schema as of Thu Apr 27 12:07:32 MDT 2006 (schema version 10)
#
#  id                                      integer(11)         not null
#  login                                   string(255)
#    A user-generated login name.
#
#  salted_password                         string(40)          default(), not null
#    Encrypted using SHA1 and the "salt" column
#
#  email                                   string(60)          default(), not null
#    Mandatory email address for each user

Adding Comments to the Database
==============================
There are two times when you might want to add comments to your columns: while you create a new table or after a table already exists.

While You Create a New Table
----------------------------------

  def self.up
    create_table "users" do |t|
      t.column "first_name", :string, :comment => "The member's given name."
      t.column "last_name", :string, :comment => "The member's family name."
    end
  end

After a Table Already Exists
------------------------------

  def self.up
    column_comment "tags", "id", "The unique ID of any tag in the system."
  end

Or, if you want to mass-assign comments (for example, just after you install the plugin on an already-built app):

  def self.up
      column_comments({
        :users => {:first_name => "User's given name", :last_name => "Family name"},
        :tags  => {:id => "Tag IDentifier"}})
  end

There is currently no advanced documentation for this plugin.