We’re excited to release ActiveScaffold 4.3.0, a major update packed with new features, improved flexibility, and better developer experience. This release focuses on enhanced form UI capabilities, improved translation support, and better asset pipeline compatibility.

🚀 Major New Features

Enhanced Enum and Select Translations

ActiveScaffold now supports nested translation keys for enum values and select options, providing more organized internationalization files. The system will look for translations in the pluralized column name before falling back to the traditional structure.

# In your model
class User < ApplicationRecord
  enum :status, [:active, :inactive]
end
# config/locales/en.yml
en:
  activerecord:
    attributes:
      user:
        status: "User Status"
        # Old: enum values as columns
        active: "Active"
        inactive: "Inactive"
        # New: nested under pluralized column name
        statuses:
          active: "Currently Active"
          inactive: "Currently Inactive"

Subform Column Configuration

You can now specify which columns appear in subforms using the :subform_columns option. This works both in form_ui_options and directly in column options, and extends to horizontal and vertical show views.

# In your controller
config.columns[:address].form_ui = :subform
config.columns[:address].show_ui = :horizontal
# setting subform_columns in column's options apply to form UI and show UI
config.columns[:address].options = {
  subform_columns: [:street, :city, :zip_code, :country]
}
# Or using form_ui with options with horizontal/vertical layout
config.columns[:address].form_ui = :subform, {subform_columns: [:street, :city]}

Multiple Layout Support for Action Columns

Action columns now support multiple layouts, allowing forms to have columns in a multiple column layout. This provides greater flexibility in organizing form elements. Each column is an ActionColumn object too, so it supports the same methods and it’s possible to add subgroups in a column.

config.create.columns.layout = :multiple
config.create.columns[0] = [:username, :email, :last_name, :first_name]
config.create.columns[1] = [:title, :company, :employee_type, :department]
# or adding a group without using index
config.create.columns << [:title, :company, :employee_type, :department]
# adding a subgroup
config.create.columns[1].add_subgroup 'Permissions' do |group|
  group << [:users, :orders, :quotes]
end

New Form UI Types

Checkboxes Form UI

A new list of checkboxes interface similar to the interface used for collection associations with :select form UI. It can be used with database columns, perfect for serialize columns saving a list of values.

# For a serialize column storing an array of roles
config.columns[:roles].form_ui = :checkboxes
config.columns[:roles].options = {
  options: ['admin', 'editor', 'viewer'],
  selected: ['editor']
}

Draggable Form UI for Non-Associations

The draggable UI now works with non-association columns, enabling sortable interfaces for serialize columns.

# For a serialize column storing ordered items
config.columns[:playlist_order].form_ui = :draggable # same as :checkboxes, {draggable_lists: true}
config.columns[:playlist_order].options = {
  options: ['Song 1', 'Song 2', 'Song 3']
}

List UI for Multiple Selection Types

Added consistent list UI for the corresponding select_multiple, draggable, checkboxes, select and radio form UIs. This provides a more consistent view, displaying in list and show actions the same values as the form, for all different form UIs, not only select and radio as before.

🔧 Improvements and Fixes

Clear Form Column Conditionals

Added clear_form_column_if — similar to hide_form_column_if but sends empty values instead of the previous values to clear database fields.

# Clears the field when condition is met
config.columns[:otp_info].clear_form_column_if = lambda do |column, record|
  record.mfa_type == 'otp'
end

Better Exception Handling

Improved error handling when rendering columns. Exceptions now provide complete backtraces, making debugging significantly easier.

Polymorphic and Nested Subform Fixes

Fixed field rendering for polymorphic associations and nested subforms in edge cases, ensuring consistent behavior across complex associations.

Propshaft Compatibility

ActiveScaffold now supports Propshaft with dartsass-rails, removing dependency on dartsass-sprockets. Simply add propshaft and dartsass-rails gems to your Gemfile:

# In your Gemfile
gem "propshaft"
gem "dartsass-rails"  # or dartsass-sprockets if not using propshaft

📦 Upgrade Notes

When upgrading to 4.3.0, please note:

  • The new translation nesting is optional and backward compatible
  • Propshaft users need to ensure they have dartsass-rails gem in their Gemfile
  • If you’re still using sprockets, add dartsass-sprockets gem; it’s not a dependency as both systems are supported

To upgrade, update your Gemfile:

gem 'active_scaffold', '~> 4.3'

Then run:

bundle update active_scaffold

🙏 Acknowledgments

Thanks to all contributors who made this release possible with their feedback, bug reports, and code contributions.

🚀 Happy scaffolding with ActiveScaffold!