Shared Columns in an STI

Rails
1

I have a an STI table which acts_as_tree, that has a large number of
classes/types. My common fields are:

id
parent_id
name
description

with 4 more text fields, I could cover most of my classes if I could
redefine the name of the field like this.

text1 AS address1
text2 AS address2
text3 AS zipcode

For one class and

text 1 AS model_number
text2 AS vendor

Is there a construct that will allow me to do this?

Thanks

2

On Sun, Mar 26, 2006 at 07:48:33AM -0500, Jim Schmidt wrote:
} I have a an STI table which acts_as_tree, that has a large number of
} classes/types. My common fields are:
}
} id
} parent_id
} name
} description
}
} with 4 more text fields, I could cover most of my classes if I could
} redefine the name of the field like this.
}
} text1 AS address1
} text2 AS address2
} text3 AS zipcode
}
} For one class and
}
} text 1 AS model_number
} text2 AS vendor
}
}
} Is there a construct that will allow me to do this?

I just wrote something to do that for similar reasons:

class Super < ActiveRecord::Base

def self.alias_field(old_field, new_field)
define_method(new_field) { self.send(old_field) }
define_method("#{new_field}=") { |arg| self.send("#{old_field}=",
arg) }
define_method("#{new_field}?") { self.send("#{old_field}?") }
end

end

class Sub < Super
alias_field :text1, :address1
alias_field :text2, :address2
alias_field :text3, :zipcode
end

Now I can do all of the following:

fail “Where’s the address?” unless foo.address1?
foo.address1 = ‘1600 Pennsylvania Ave.’
addr = foo.address1

…and it will use text1?, text1=, and text1, respectively.

} Thanks
–Greg

3

Thanks, that is exactly what I need.