Service Objects are basically ruby scripts that you can run in your Rails app.

It’s a great way to abstract scripts that you can run anywhere from your app. You can run it from any controller action, a model, from a job, or even from another Service Object!

This is a common way to abstract API calls to external services or business logic.

Chances are high, that in any real-life production application you will encounter /app/services/ folder. Common aliases are /app/integrations/, /app/operations/.

Minimal script setup example: # 

# app/services/publish_post.rb
class PublishPost
  def initialize(post, user)
    @post = post
    @user = user
  end

  def call
    return if @post.published!

    @post.update(user: @user)
    @post.published!
  end
end

Call the command:

post = Post.first
user = User.first
PublishPost.new(post, user).call

Advanced script setup example: # 

# app/services/posts/publish.rb
require 'abc'

module Posts
  class Publish
    attr_reader :post, :user

    def initialize(post, user)
      @post = post
      @user = user
    end

    def call
      return unless callable?

      post.update(user:)
      post.published!
    end

    private

    def callable?
      !post.published?
    end
  end
end

Call the command:

post = Post.first
user = User.first
Posts::Publish.new(post, user).call

That’s it! 🎉🥳🍾