Question

I have two models

Business and Representative

When a business or representative signs up they are shown a list of options for “How did you hear about us?”

The discovery ways are dynamic, so the admin can add the ways in which a business or representative can discover us. For example the admin may add options ‘Via Google’, ‘Through a Friend’, ‘Through another Representative’ etc.. Each discovery type can either be for a business or representative or both.

How should I model the discovery_type model , What relationship it should have, I was thinking some thing along the following lines

Schema : 
table: discovery_types
name: string
type: string(can be one of 'business','representative', 'both')

class DiscoveryType< ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :businesses
  has_many :representatives
end

class Business< ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :discovery_type
end

class Representative< ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :discovery_type
end

I am just not confident of this above scheme. so can anyone point out any issues and may be suggest a better way out..

Also should I add an index on any of the columns ?

Answer 1

Edited: Not Polymorphic Association, you’re right – that’s the opposite relationship.

This should work for the relationship you want –

class DiscoveryType< ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :discoveries
end

class Discovery < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :discovery_type
end

class Business < Discovery
end

class Representative < Discovery
end

If you leave the type column in discovery_types Rails should automatically use it