Using External Databases that Don't Have ID Columns

Rails
1

I have to connect to an external database which I don’t have control of.
They were not setup with a Rails application in mind. I can extract
information easily enough, but creating associations between the models
is my problem. I am not certain how exactly to let Rails know what the
primary key column is.

I have two tables, properties and photos. I would like to create an
association like this:

Class Property
has_many :photos, :class_name => “Photo”, :foreign_key => “propNum”
end

Class Photo
belongs_to :property, :class_name => “Property”, :foreign_key =>
“propNum”
end

The properties table uses ‘propNum’ instead of ID. The photos table uses
photoNum instead of ID, and associates to the properties table using a
propNum column versus property_id.

I am not certain how exactly to specify what the primary column name is
so Rails can understand the association. Any help would be great.

2

Hi!
Following code should set the primary key to propNum.
class Property
set_primary_key ‘propNum’
end
Hope this helps,

Thanks and regards,
Swanand

3

I knew it would be something really easy! Thanks Swanand!