= Connie ==== Little compact library to synthesise data that does not load big files in memory.

Heavily based on Forgery[http://github.com/sevenwire/forgery.git] it uses the same word sources. It's built to be a bit more customisable and allows you to define new strategies and styles both using ruby modules or big text lists.

== Install

On the console:

gem install connie

In your Gemfile gem 'connie'

== Usage

Connie offers four exciting functionalities:

• Dictionaries
• Shorthand to pick a random element from an array
• Interpolating strings

===Dictionaries

A dictionary is a vast source of words for a subject, Connie has 4 dictionaries built in:

• Names
• Geo
• Net
• Creative
• Shopping

For example inspecting the names dictionary: Connie[:names].inspect # Shorthand to access a dictionary <Connie::Dictionary - Connie::Names - company last female suffix title male first gender> You receive a quick overview of what this dictionary can generate. To have the dictionary generate something simply: Connie[:names].first

===Shorthands

Connie provides a couple of shorthands methods to randomise your data: Connie([:one, :two, :three]) #=> returns randomly selected element of the array Connie.letter #=> returns a random lowercase letter Connie.letter :uppercase #=> returns a random uppercse letter Connie? #=> returns true or false. Randomly

===Interpolations

Interpolations happen in a dictionary but allow to reach others through scoping

Connie[:names].interpolate "Mr. :male :last: :geo.city, :geo.state_short"

=> "Mr. Mark Taylor: Pleasant Hill, NY"

A shorthand method i is provided for convenience and interpolation is also available through the global method: Connie(':names.male :names.last')

== Extending You can extend Dictionaries in two ways:

=== Word Lists This will ensure that calling the word type a line is randomly picked from word list file

You can provide word list files inside folder registered with connie:

• by putting the _wordname file into the _dictionaryname folder
• by creating a _dictionaryname._wordname

=== Methods in the DictionaryName module Anywhere in your code by adding instance methods to the Connie::DictionaryName module

It's handy to aggregate different words from the lists and present the in different ways:

# e.g. Extending the names dictionary to return a full name
module Connie
  module Names
    # Returns a full name
    def full
      "#{first} #{last}"
    end    
  end
end

To add a folder to Connie's sources just do something like this in your code: Connie.dictionaries_path << 'my/cool/dictionaries'

== What next It'd be nice to have an structured dictionary or a weighted one, where some options can occur more often than others (Eg not as many 'Count' as there are 'Dr.' or 'Mr.')

== Note on Patches/Pull Requests

• Fork the project.
• Make your feature addition or bug fix.
• Add tests for it. This is important so I don't break it in a future version unintentionally.
• Commit, do not mess with rakefile, version, or history. (if you want to have your own version, that is fine but bump version in a commit by itself I can ignore when I pull)
• Send me a pull request. Bonus points for topic branches.

== Copyright

Copyright (c) 2010 Leandro Pedroni. See LICENSE for details.