adding Arel-supported alias_column support to Rails

arel_patch.rb

require 'arel/attributes/attribute'

module ColumnAlias
  module ArelAttributePatch
    def name
      return super unless relation.engine.respond_to?(:column_aliases)
      name_given = super
      relation.engine.column_aliases[name_given] || name_given
    end
  end

  module ActiveRecord
    def self.included(base)
      base.extend(ClassMethods)
    end

    module ClassMethods
      def alias_column(from, to)
        @column_aliases ||= {}
        @column_aliases[from.to_s] = to.to_s
      end

      def column_aliases
        @column_aliases
      end
    end
  end
end

Arel::Attributes::Attribute.prepend(ColumnAlias::ArelAttributePatch)