Describing a "replaces" relationship within the same model

Rails
1

Hi!

I would like to describe the relationships between two objects of a
model, where one of the objects replaces the other. I want to be able
to tell if one object has been replaced and, if so, by what object; and
vice versa what object an object replaces, if any. My idea was the
following:

create_table :events do |t|
t.column :replacement_id, :integer
t.column :description, :text, :null => false
end

create_table :replacements, {:id => false} do |t|
t.column :original_id, :integer, :null => false
t.column :new_id, :integer, :null => false
t.column :date, :date, :null => false
end

Is this a reasonable model and, if so, how should I link Event and
Replacement together?

My idea for the above was: An Event can belong to a Replacement and a
Replacement has an original Event and a new Event. One can thus tell if
an Event replaces or is replaced by another Event by looking at what
member of a Replacement an Event belongs to, i.e., if it is equal to
Replacement#original or Replacement#new. I also want to know the date
when the replacement was made.

Any suggestions are welcome.

nikolai

2

Nikolai W. wrote:

create_table :replacements, {:id => false} do |t|

Hm, I guess doing :id => false here isn’t right, so it should be

create_table :replacements do |t|

After realizing this the set up becomes the following:

create_table :events do |t|
t.column :replacement_id, :integer
t.column :description, :text, :null => false
end

create_table :replacements do |t|
t.column :original_id, :integer, :null => false
t.column :new_id, :integer, :null => false
t.column :date, :date, :null => false
end

And the models will be:

class Event < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :replacement
end

class Replacement < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :original,
:class_name => “Event”
:foreign_key => “original_id”
belongs_to :new,
:class_name => “Event”
:foreign_key => “new_id”
end

Does that seem reasonable?

I guess what confused me is that I always seem to read “belongs_to” as
“belongs to”, which makes sense for Event, instead of “references”,
which makes sense for Replacement, as is sometimes what you’re trying to
achieve.

nikolai