Adding support for defining cast_as on properties as a Class

lib/couchrest.rb

@@ -156,4 +156,4 @@ module CouchRest
       url
     end
   end # class << self
-end
+end

lib/couchrest/mixins/properties.rb

@@ -50,24 +50,18 @@ module CouchRest
         # Don't cast the property unless it has a value
         return unless self[key]
         if property.type.is_a?(Array)
-          klass = ::CouchRest.constantize(property.type[0])
+          klass = property.type[0]
           self[key] = [self[key]] unless self[key].is_a?(Array)
           arr = self[key].collect do |value|
             value = typecast_value(value, klass, property.init_method)
             associate_casted_to_parent(value, assigned)
             value
           end
-          # only cast arrays of more complex objects (i.e. not strings)
+          # allow casted_by calls to be passed up chain by wrapping in CastedArray
           self[key] = klass != String ? CastedArray.new(arr) : arr
           self[key].casted_by = self if self[key].respond_to?(:casted_by)
         else
-          if property.type.downcase == 'boolean'
-            klass = TrueClass
-          else
-            klass = ::CouchRest.constantize(property.type)
-          end
-          
-          self[key] = typecast_value(self[key], klass, property.init_method)
+          self[key] = typecast_value(self[key], property.type, property.init_method)
           associate_casted_to_parent(self[key], assigned)
         end
       end

lib/couchrest/more/property.rb

@@ -16,11 +16,19 @@ module CouchRest
 
       def parse_type(type)
         if type.nil?
-          @type = 'String'
+          @type = String
         elsif type.is_a?(Array) && type.empty?
-          @type = ['Object']
+          @type = [Object]
         else
-          @type = type.is_a?(Array) ? [type.first.to_s] : type.to_s
+          base_type = type.is_a?(Array) ? type.first : type
+          if base_type.is_a?(String)
+            base_type = TrueClass if base_type.downcase == 'boolean'
+            begin
+              base_type = ::CouchRest.constantize(base_type) unless base_type.is_a?(Class)
+            rescue  # leave base type as is and convert in more/typecast 
+            end
+          end
+          @type = type.is_a?(Array) ? [base_type] : base_type 
         end
       end
 

lib/couchrest/more/typecast.rb

@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ module CouchRest
 
       def typecast_value(value, klass, init_method)
         return nil if value.nil?
+        klass = ::CouchRest.constantize(klass) unless klass.is_a?(Class)
         if value.instance_of?(klass) || klass == Object
           value
         elsif [String, TrueClass, Integer, Float, BigDecimal, DateTime, Time, Date, Class].include?(klass)

lib/couchrest/validation/auto_validate.rb

@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ module CouchRest
         end
 
         # length
-        if property.type == "String"
+        if property.type == String
           # XXX: maybe length should always return a Range, with the min defaulting to 1
           # 52 being the max set 
           len = property.options.fetch(:length, property.options.fetch(:size, 52))