If you've ever found yourself in a situation where you feel like you should use enum, but it has 50 positions so you don't know where to put it, the answer is here!

Just store your enums in a .yml file!

This makes little sense when you have a small enum with just a couple of options, but the more options you have, the easier it is to see the benefits of using it.

1. Create a folder /config/enums to store your enum files in .yml format.
2. Make sure your enum column has a type string.

Et voila!

Given a file /config/enums/eye_colors.yml you can add eye_color enum to a Cat model with the following line:

enum :eye_color, from_file: :eye_colors

You can continue using regular syntax for regular cases:

enum status: { active: "active", archived: "archived" }

All the options will be passed to native enum implementation as expected.

You can structure your .yml file either as a hash

blue:   blue
copper: copper
yellow: yellow

Or as a list

gold
orange
green
red

The list will be converted automatically, so both structures yield the same result.

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem "enum_from_file"

And then execute:

$ bundle

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on project's page at GitHub

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.