sebastian wrote:
For an online shop I will have to work with a legacy data base for
some of the models.
Furthermore, within my application those models will need additional
attributes that I will have to save in my own database.
I was thinking of using aggregation, encapsulating the legacy data in
their own ActiveRecords::Base objects, which I would configure to use
the legacy database. Then I would wrap those objects into other
ActiveRecords::Base objects that would contain the extra attributes
and use my own database.
Do you think this is a viable approach?
In the docs I read that composed_of is meant for value objects not
business objects…
Has anybody solved a similar situation?
Chances are I won’t even be able to access the legacy database
directly, but will have to query it through WebServices.
Does anybody have a suggestion how to go about if that were case?
Any feedback is highly appreciated!
I think I can get you started, but hopefully someone who has done this
can give real advice.
First, you are going to need to connect to two different data sources.
I would suggest that to do this effectively you should create two
Subclasses of ActiveRecord::Base.
class LegacyBase <ActiveRecord::Base;end
class MyAdditionsBase <ActiveRecord::Base;end
You will need to set the connection in the Legacy database up by hand.
If you are lucky this will just be a matter of calling
LegacyBase.establish_connection. Please see the documentation for that
function.
(ActiveRecord::Base)
If you are not lucky (i.e. you legacy data source does not have a built
in connection adapter) you will need to make your own. If you have to
go through a WebService, this will defiantly be the case. I’m afraid I
cannot help you here, but my instinct is that someone else has had to do
this and there may be a plugin out there that will at least give you a
place to start.
As I think about this, there is a point at which you access to the
legacy data becomes so restrictive, that it may be easier write a class
using Ruby’s native SOAP or XMLRPC client classes rather then fight
ActiveRecord. If you cannot run general SQL queries through the
WebServices, but only call pre-baked query function with parameters, I
think this would be the way to go.
Next, create some models for you legacy data useing the LagacyBase class
instead of AR::B. These should be fairly basic, but you will need to
explicitly state what the primary_key and foreign_keys are, because I
will bet that your legacy data does not conform to rails expectations.
Finally, I would suggest that anywhere you have created a new tables in
the database you control, that you make a model on those tables and use
a belongs_to relationship with your legacy models. A little work with
method_missing might go a long way towards hiding the underlying
relationship.
Something you ought to think through, is how to maintain integrity
between the two databases. What happens when someone creates or deletes
a record in the Legacy data source and doesn’t bother to tell you about
it.
Hope this helps.
John M.