non-ActiveRecord model structure through api calls

Rails
1

This question is more about strategy than a how-to.

I have MyApplication which interfaces with ApplicationX through xml-rpc
calls. In MyApplication I display information from ApplicationX. This
information are from classes within ApplicationX.

Currently, I continue to go back and forth with the best way to approach
this. Do I:

  • replicate the information into MyApplication and deal with syncing
    issues. The pros I see with this route are easy validations,
    ActiveRecord associations, RESTful urls, etc…

or

  • just make api calls whenever I need the information and deal with
    non-ActiveRecord models. The pros I see with this option is not having
    to continually sync the data with ApplicationX.

or

  • Is there a way to do both? Create ActiveRecord models with an xml-rpc
    connection instead of MySQL connection. Is this possible?

I guess I’m wondering the best approach to take with the described
senario. Any tips?

2

On Jul 15, 12:00 am, Nate L. [email protected]
wrote:

issues. The pros I see with this route are easy validations,
ActiveRecord associations, RESTful urls, etc…

or

  • just make api calls whenever I need the information and deal with
    non-ActiveRecord models. The pros I see with this option is not having
    to continually sync the data with ApplicationX.

Have you looked at ActiveResource ? (assuming you own application X
and can change it)

Fred