## app/views/searches.show.html.erb

<% content_tag :ol, :class => 'results' do %>
  <% @search.results.each do |result| %>
    <%= content_tag :li, result.excerpt!.foo.bar %>
  <% end %>
<% end %>

## test/unit/search/excerption_chain_test.rb
require 'test_helper'

class Search::ExcerptionChainTest < ActiveSupport::TestCase
  should("pass truthitest") { assert true }

  class Foo
    attr_accessor :bar
    def initialize options
      self.bar = options.delete :bar
    end
  end

  def setup
    @foo = Foo.new :bar => 'bar'
    @excerpter = stub()

    @foo_chain = Search::ExcerptionChain.new @excerpter, @foo
  end

  should("equal to the wrapped object") { assert_equal @foo_chain, @foo }

  context "invoking sub-method #bar" do
    evaluate { @bar_chain = @foo_chain.bar }

    should("use the same excerpter") { assert @foo_chain.excerpter.equal?(@bar_chain.excerpter) }
    should("use foo.bar as the object") { assert @foo.bar.equal?(@bar_chain.object) }
  end

  should("run excerption and return the excerpted text when #to_s is invoked on the returned object", :before => proc do
    @excerpter.expects(:excerpts).with(@foo.bar).returns :excerpted_stuff
  end) do
    assert_equal :excerpted_stuff, @foo_chain.bar.to_s
  end
end

## app/models/search/excerption_chain.rb

class Search::ExcerptionChain
  instance_methods.each { |m| undef_method m unless m =~ /^__|^object_id$/ }
  attr_accessor :excerpter, :object

  def initialize excerpter, object
    self.excerpter = excerpter
    self.object = object
  end

  def method_missing method, *args
    Search::ExcerptionChain.new excerpter, object.send(method, *args)
  end

  def to_s; excerpter.excerpts object.to_s end
end