the Law of Demeter

Bad Smell

class Invoice < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user
end

<%= @invoice.user.name %>
<%= @invoice.user.address %>
<%= @invoice.user.cellphone %>

In this example, invoice model calls the association(user)'s property(name, address and cellphone), which violates the law of demeter. We should add some wrapper methods.

Refactor

class Invoice < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user
  delegate :name, :address, :cellphone, :to => :user, :prefix => true
end

<%= @invoice.user_name %>
<%= @invoice.user_address %>
<%= @invoice.user_cellphone %>

Luckily, rails provides a helper method delegate which utilizes the DSL way to generates the wrapper methods. Besides the loose coupling, delegate also prevents the error call method on nil object if you add option :allow_nil => true.