# Acts\_as\_nested\_set usable?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/acts-as-nested-set-usable/83414>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [January 25, 2007, 8:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/acts-as-nested-set-usable/83414 "2007-01-25T20:53:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![quik77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/q/dec6dc/32.png) [@quik77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/quik77)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 8:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/acts-as-nested-set-usable/83414/1 "2007-01-25T20:53:18Z")

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According to the Agile book,  
“Rails ships with three acts as extensions: acts\_as\_list, acts\_as\_tree,  
and acts\_as\_nested\_set. I’ve chosen to document just the first two of  
these; as this book was being finalized, the nested set variant had some  
serious problems that prevent us from verifying its use with working  
code.”

So, is it safe to use or not?

I’ve got a forum app, based originally on the RForum codebase, that  
would seem to benefit greatly (performance-wise) from using  
acts\_as\_nested\_set instead of acts\_as\_tree.

What say you?

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**Author:** ![quik77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/q/dec6dc/32.png) [@quik77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/quik77)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 4:34am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/acts-as-nested-set-usable/83414/2 "2007-01-26T04:34:58Z")

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Hi Robert,

I read the same thing while I was in the middle of doing an  
acts\_as\_nested\_set forum implementation myself, and it did give me  
pause. But, since I was already going down that path rather than using  
acts\_as\_threaded, I decided to press on. I was able to successfuly use  
acts\_as\_nested\_set for my threaded forum app, which I started yesterday  
and more-or-less finished today. I am happy to say that all of my  
tests run, and it seems to be performing well. My particular forum has  
multiple roots as well as multiple forums, and so far, I have not seen  
any problems.

The directions I followed were from Bob S.'s site [I.nfectio.us](http://I.nfectio.us), and  
here is the link:  
[http://www.railtie.net/articles/2006/03/31/implement-acts\_as\_threaded-without-a-plugin](http://www.railtie.net/articles/2006/03/31/implement-acts_as_threaded-without-a-plugin)

Bob is the author of acts\_as\_threaded as well.

Hope this helps!

C

On Jan 25, 2:53 pm, Robert H. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![quik77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/q/dec6dc/32.png) [@quik77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/quik77)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 4:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/acts-as-nested-set-usable/83414/3 "2007-01-26T04:48:59Z")

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Sorry for the intrusion on this post, but after I replied to Robert  
above, I changed my profile to reflect my new company. Unfortunately,  
Google doesn’t get the concept of forwarding the link from your old  
posts to your new profile, so if anyone would like to contact me  
regarding my answer above, you will need to respond to this message  
instead. Sorry!

C