# technoweenie/attachment_fu

Treat an ActiveRecord model as a file attachment, storing its patch, size, content type, etc.

Repository: https://github.com/technoweenie/attachment_fu
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/attachment_fu
Homepage: http://weblog.techno-weenie.net
Language: Ruby
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2017-03-28T00:48:29+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 6806, "days_push": 3446, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1024, forks 335 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:16.390296+00:00)

## What it is
attachment_fu is a Ruby on Rails plugin that turns ActiveRecord models into file attachments, storing metadata (path, size, content type) in the database. It supports multiple storage backends including the filesystem, database, Amazon S3, and Rackspace Cloud Files, with optional RMagick-based resizing and thumbnailing.

## Use cases
- handle file uploads in a rails app
- attach images to activerecord models
- store uploaded files on amazon s3
- generate thumbnails for uploaded images
- validate upload size and content type
- store file attachments in the database

## When to choose
- you maintain a legacy Rails 2.x-era application already using acts_as_attachment-style plugins
- you need a simple, minimal attachment solution with filesystem or S3 storage in an old Rails codebase

## When to avoid
- you are starting a new Rails project - use Active Storage or CarrierWave instead
- you need modern cloud storage backends, background processing, or active maintenance
- you run a recent Rails version, since this plugin is unmaintained and incompatible

## Facets
- artifact type: plugin
- maturity: abandoned
- function: file-upload, image-processing, orm
- domain: web-development, files, backend
- platform: ruby
- tags: rails, activerecord, file-attachments, thumbnails, amazon-s3, legacy, web-server

## Member repositories
- technoweenie/attachment_fu (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:16.390296+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T07:08:15.600815+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/technoweenie/attachment_fu (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:16.390296+00:00, sha f3c27cc268d8)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.