Question

I have a user model and point model. A user can have many points and points belong to users.

Users earn points and I am just not sure where I should put the methods for these models. For example, I want to have an “add_points” method that adds points to a user. I’m thinking that should go in the user model but i’m just not sure.

I want to be able to do user1.add_points(:earned_for, amount)

or something along those lines.

Answer 1

When you add the method to the user, you probably won’t be doing much more than hooking into the create method of the has_many relationship:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base

  has_many :points

  def add_point(reason, amount)
    points.create({:earned_for => reason, :amount => amount})
  end
end

If the shorthand is useful, great; otherwise, you might just use the helper methods that are defined in your relationships. See here for the details.