# Model without database table **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [August 9, 2007, 10:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/model-without-database-table/111699 "2007-08-09T22:05:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a87d85/32.png) [@pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pezdude)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2007, 10:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/model-without-database-table/111699/1 "2007-08-09T22:05:43Z")
I have a few models that have “statuses”. These statuses are currently stored in a database table. Examples: id: 1 status: Awaiting Review id: 2 status: Development id: 3 status: Production etc etc. This data doesn’t really need to be in a database since it probably won’t change too often. I was wondering, can I have a status model that doesn’t pull it’s data from a database? I’ve googled but have had no luck. Thanks! Dave ---
**Author:** ![pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a87d85/32.png) [@pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pezdude)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2007, 10:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/model-without-database-table/111699/2 "2007-08-09T22:47:01Z")
Dave, I’d be interested in hearing from other folks as well on how they handle this issue. In the past, I didn’t create a model, but just documented in the model of the class that has the id (in your case whatever has the status attribute). So at the top of the model, I just made a little table showing me the statuses. If you wanted to be able to programatically be able to access those statuses, you could create a method that is just a case statement with each of your id’s. The method could be on a specific object or maybe at the application level if you uses statuses in multiple places. What do other people do in these cases? You would hate to hit the database for something like this… Thanks, Tom On Aug 9, 4:05 pm, Dave C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a87d85/32.png) [@pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pezdude)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2007, 10:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/model-without-database-table/111699/3 "2007-08-09T22:56:25Z")
TomRossi7 wrote: > If you wanted to be able to programatically be able to access those > statuses, you could create a method that is just a case statement with > each of your id’s. I guess I could create a helper method to do that as well since multiple models would be referencing this data, then return a value with a case statement. Just seems like the data belongs in it’s own model for some reason. > What do other people do in these cases? You would hate to hit the > database for something like this… Exactly. Thanks Tom! ---
**Author:** ![pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a87d85/32.png) [@pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pezdude)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2007, 11:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/model-without-database-table/111699/4 "2007-08-09T23:05:04Z")
app/models/status.rb class Status AwaitingReview = 1 Development = 2 Production = 3 end Nothing in Rails is forcing you to use ActiveRecord::Base as the parent of your models. Of course you can do this as methods if you needed, but as you said the information won’t change, constants seems like a good fit. Jason ---
**Author:** ![pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a87d85/32.png) [@pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pezdude)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2007, 11:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/model-without-database-table/111699/5 "2007-08-09T23:40:58Z")
Jason R. wrote: > Nothing in Rails is forcing you to use ActiveRecord::Base as the parent > of > your models. > Yep, I could do that to. Thanks. What I’d love to keep though is the automatic association that activerecord provides, just without the trip to the DB. So, keep the has\_one belongs\_to association… Was just wondering if that’s possible. ---
**Author:** ![pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a87d85/32.png) [@pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pezdude)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2007, 10:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/model-without-database-table/111699/6 "2007-08-10T10:12:51Z")
Looks like this plugin might be useful to you: [http://svn.protocool.com/public/plugins/enumerations\_mixin/README\_ENUMERATIONS](http://svn.protocool.com/public/plugins/enumerations_mixin/README_ENUMERATIONS) Cheers, Jordan ---
**Author:** ![pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a87d85/32.png) [@pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pezdude)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2007, 1:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/model-without-database-table/111699/7 "2007-08-10T13:12:11Z")
Dave C. wrote: > What I’d love to keep though is the automatic association that > activerecord provides, just without the trip to the DB. So, keep the > has\_one belongs\_to association… Was just wondering if that’s possible. I don’t know if this is exactly what you meant, but I’m working on a similar problem, and the answer seems to be working pretty well right now. I have an antique “crashes” datatable with about 30 “flag” fields, where a “3” in the “location” field means “On Shoulder” and a “1” means “In Roadway”, etc. Well, like I said, there are about 30 fields like that, each with its own set of flags. To make them “human maintainable,” the Columbus Ruby Brigade came up with this just yesterday: [http://groups.google.com/group/columbusrb/browse\_frm/thread/550d2dd0d69b637c](http://groups.google.com/group/columbusrb/browse_frm/thread/550d2dd0d69b637c) which is a “facade\_” prefix for the flag fields. So, if you send crash.location, you get back a “3”, and if you send facade\_crash\_location, you get back “On Shoulder.” If you send facade\_crash\_location=“In Roadway,” it sets the “location” value to a “1”. I.e., you can round-trip via the direct call or the facade call, whichever is convenient. If you call a “facade\_” field which doesn’t have any flags set, it just returns the value in the field without any whining. The model also exposes its flags so you can use them in “collection\_select”, etc. – although I didn’t get a chance to try that yesterday. The flag’s values are stored in a YAML file, so they’re easy to edit if needed. I don’t know if this is exactly what you need, but perhaps it’s close? Ron