Question

I am working with Rails 3, and I have a model called User that authors a Syllabus. I would like to add the feature of “co-authoring” a syllabus, so the original author can invite a different user to make changes to the content.

Which options below makes more sense? (If there’s something better, please let me know)

1. make the author attribute an array attribute, so that Syllabus.author would be an array containing all of its authors

2. create additional attributes to Syllabus, such as coauthor1, coauthor2

If the first one makes more sense, would you be able to specifically describe how would I make it an array attribute, and insert additional authors later?

One reason I was considering the second option was because that would allow a distinction between the original author and the other co-authors, enabling perhaps only the original author to delete the Syllabus, while other co-authors have limited authority?

Answer 1

You can also make linking table like this:

autorhs_syllabus
----------------------
id
author_id integer
syllabus_id integer
original_author boolean