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POHow to Model Multiple Relationships in ActiveRecord?
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copied!<p>I am trying to finish building a Rails "Home Inventory" app as an example to help me learn rails. Following gives a general overview of what I am trying to achieve:</p> <p>The main purpose of this application is to show a page with detailed information.</p> <p>So, <a href="http://localhost:3000/living-room-couch" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://localhost:3000/living-room-couch</a> would display the information regarding the couch. </p> <p>Each Item, can belong one( or has one?) of three categories:</p> <ol> <li>Book</li> <li>Furniture</li> <li>Electronics.</li> </ol> <p><strong>Book</strong> has the following properties:<br> - isbn,<br> - pages,<br> - address,<br> - category </p> <p><strong>Furniture</strong> has following properties:<br> - color,<br> - price,<br> - address,<br> - category </p> <p><strong>Electronics</strong> has following properties:<br> - name,<br> - voltage,<br> - address,<br> - category.</p> <p>--</p> <p>Now on my <strong>View</strong> side, I have made 3 templates in rails, that contain elements suited to display an item belonging to one of the 3 categories. Template for <strong>Book</strong> shows isbn, and template for <strong>Electronics</strong> shows the voltage.</p> <p><strong>How do I model this in ActiveRecord?</strong> I will put it in English, maybe someone can help translate into Rails:</p> <p>An Item, belongs_to or has_one <em>category</em>. Category can be one of the three: <em>Book</em>, <em>Furniture</em>, or <em>Electronic</em>.</p> <p>I don't know how to do this. I know that each category like <strong>Book</strong> will be a model of its own, due to having different characteristics. </p> <p>Do I need to have <strong>Category</strong> has a model too, because it would only consist of <strong>Book</strong>, or <strong>Furniture</strong> or <strong>Electronics</strong>. If I was to take the route of making Category a model of its own, how would I make it relate to a model such as <strong>Book</strong>.</p> <hr> <p><strong>--or</strong></p> <p>Would I just go this route (or join model perhaps):</p> <pre><code>class BookModel < ActiveRecord::Base has_many :categories End </code></pre> <p>And then, select to which category belongs, based on the Model name.</p> <p>I hope I put the question right, I am just so confused regarding this.</p> <p>Thank You for your time.</p>

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