Let’s say I create a “ticket system” that has a support ticket with a
status attached to it. (Say, OPEN or CLOSED for now, but more later)
The status -could- be another table in the database listing status
types, but I think that’s unnecessarily complex and overly flexible for
this. (opinions on this point would be interesting)
Another alternative would be to define the statuses as a constant within
the application:
ticket_status = [“Open”, “Closed”]
Where is this constant declaration best suited? At the App level in the
CONFIG[]? Or in the model for the ticket? The controller for the
ticket? It seems to be a model thing.
Jake
Jake J. wrote:
Let’s say I create a “ticket system” that has a support ticket with a
status attached to it. (Say, OPEN or CLOSED for now, but more later)
The status -could- be another table in the database listing status
types, but I think that’s unnecessarily complex and overly flexible for
this. (opinions on this point would be interesting)
Another alternative would be to define the statuses as a constant within
the application:
ticket_status = [“Open”, “Closed”]
Where is this constant declaration best suited? At the App level in the
CONFIG[]? Or in the model for the ticket? The controller for the
ticket? It seems to be a model thing.
Jake
You could define it in environment.rb:
TICKET_STATUS = [“Open”, “Closed”]
Or in the model, it doesnt really matter.
Hi –
On Sun, 12 Feb 2006, Jake J. wrote:
ticket_status = [“Open”, “Closed”]
That’s not a constant – do you mean TICKET_STATUSES or something?
(Actually if you have a Ticket class you would probably want a
constant just called STATUSES.)
Where is this constant declaration best suited? At the App level in the
CONFIG[]? Or in the model for the ticket? The controller for the
ticket? It seems to be a model thing.
I think it’s a model thing. Basically, you’re trying not to have to
type the list of statuses over again if it’s used in multiple methods.
So it’s just an abstraction one level up:
class Ticket < ActiveRecord::Base
STATUSES = %w{ Open Closed } # or whatever :-)
def check_status
STATUSES.include?(status)
end
def something_else
# do something else with STATUSES
end
end
No need to stash it further away than this. It makes sense, too, that
the statuses list would be a class-level resource of Ticket.
David
–
David A. Black ([email protected])
Ruby Power and Light (http://www.rubypowerandlight.com)
“Ruby for Rails” chapters now available
from Manning Early Access Program! Ruby for Rails
First of all for this case it’d probably be best just to make it a
boolean. It’ll lead to natural code, like
if ticket.open?
…
If you really want to go for string statuses though, David’s code
looks pretty good. I’d do something like,
class Ticket < ActiveRecord::Base
Open= ‘open’
Closed = ‘closed’
Statuses = [Open, Closed]
def status_is?(s)
status == s
end
end
This would lead to the reasonably natural code:
if ticket.status_is?(Ticket::Open)
…
You can then also create an open? method, which just checks the status
with a default val (open classes make it more fun to write mailing
list posts 
class Ticket < ActiveRecord::Base
def open?
status_is?(Open)
end
end
The very last thing is that you will want to write a validation:
class Ticket < ActiveRecord::Base
def validate
unless status and Statuses.include?(status)
errors.add(:status, ‘must be one of the following: ’ +
Statuses.join(’, ')
end
end
end
Anyway, imo this is all a pretty ugly to solution when it can be
solved by simply making this field a boolean.
Pat
On Sun, 2006-02-12 at 18:50 -0700, Pat M. wrote:
First of all for this case it’d probably be best just to make it a
boolean. It’ll lead to natural code, like
if ticket.open?
…
OK - I asked the other day and didn’t get a bite so since you mentioned
it…
I am using a boolean…
Accepted and it stores either a 0 or 1 in postgres which is good.
It displays ‘true’ or ‘false’ on screen and I would much rather have it
display ‘yes’ or ‘no’
How do I change the display of that boolean? Is there a helper or do I
have to write it? Can I write it so that I can refer to it again and
again with other booleans?
Craig
Craig W. wrote:
On Sun, 2006-02-12 at 18:50 -0700, Pat M. wrote:
First of all for this case it’d probably be best just to make it a
boolean. It’ll lead to natural code, like
if ticket.open?
…
Well, if open/closed is all I wanted to deal with, yes. We’ll see.
It displays ‘true’ or ‘false’ on screen and I would much rather have it
display ‘yes’ or ‘no’
How do I change the display of that boolean? Is there a helper or do I
have to write it? Can I write it so that I can refer to it again and
again with other booleans?
The simplest way would be: ( ticket.open? ? ‘yes’ : ‘no’ )
On Mon, 2006-02-13 at 03:25 +0100, Jake J. wrote:
It displays ‘true’ or ‘false’ on screen and I would much rather have it
display ‘yes’ or ‘no’
How do I change the display of that boolean? Is there a helper or do I
have to write it? Can I write it so that I can refer to it again and
again with other booleans?
The simplest way would be: ( ticket.open? ? ‘yes’ : ‘no’ )
works for me - thanks
Craig