Which acts_as to use?

Rails
#1

I’m planning a custom CMS for a job. The idea is that I want would like
the user to build up the site using pages (these are model objects).
These pages would be like a tree structure: one homepage then three sub
pages each subpage has more subpages etc.

Now can someone recommend which of these to use and why?:

acts_as _threaded
acts_as_list
acts_as_nested

I don’t want to try and use each one to find out which is most suited to
my problem. It would be similar in concept to Radient but due to the
custom nature of the job i’m building from scratch.

Any comments or code samples welcome. I’m not new to Rails but i’m no
way an expert!

#2

On 12/1/06, James W. [email protected] wrote:

acts_as_list
You said that it’s a tree strcuture, so don’t use acts_as_list at all.

acts_as_nested

You can use acts_as_threaded, acts_as_tree or acts_as_nested set. I
recommend you the later. It’s better for retrieving the tree from the
database. It can do it with only one query.

Regards,
Rodrigo.

I don’t want to try and use each one to find out which is most suited to

#3

Rodrigo A. wrote:

On 12/1/06, James W. [email protected] wrote:

acts_as_list
You said that it’s a tree strcuture, so don’t use acts_as_list at all.

acts_as_nested

You can use acts_as_threaded, acts_as_tree or acts_as_nested set. I
recommend you the later. It’s better for retrieving the tree from the
database. It can do it with only one query.

Regards,
Rodrigo.

I don’t want to try and use each one to find out which is most suited to

Thanks, what is the difference between them all I can’t seem to find a
relevant answer. The structure will be in a tree for navigation purposes
and because I would like to cascade certain properties down the tree
from the parent.

#4

On 12/1/06, James W. [email protected] wrote:

You can use acts_as_threaded, acts_as_tree or acts_as_nested set. I
relevant answer. The structure will be in a tree for navigation purposes
and because I would like to cascade certain properties down the tree
from the parent.

The tree aproach uses a parent_id in children nodes, pointing to their
parents. This means that if you have several levels, you will need more
than
one query to retrieve the tree from the database.

The nested set approach is more complex, but once understood, it makes a
lot
of sense. The insert and delete actions are more expensive than in the
normal tree approach, but you can read a whole tree, or may a branch
with
only one query. You could know how many children a node has too.

You can read more about nested sets here
http://www.edutech.ch/contribution/nstrees/index.php
You can google for more explanations too.

Regards,
Rodrigo.

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